Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Why would you say no? Even though it is being provided free in Tasmania at the moment, the take-up rate is only at about 50 per cent, and the government is boasting about that. Granted, it is higher in some other communities—I think some other communities have got the message. But, as of estimates, there were only 262 active services of about 4,000 households that are covered by the service in Tasmania.

The government talks about how wonderful this is going to be for rural and regional Australia. In Smithton, only those within the town boundary are going to get access to broadband via fibre; the rest of them are going to have to use the ‘inferior technologies’ that Senator Conroy talks about. They are going to have to have satellite or fixed wireless.