Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It will see Australians experience the NBN sooner and faster. It will accelerate the government's delivery of superfast broadband to all Australians no matter where they live across our vast country. The signing of the docu­ments also represents a watershed in tele­communications industry reform, providing the impetus for the structural separation of Telstra—a critical reform that will finally enable real competition.

Just over 12 months ago, we signed the financial heads of agreements. Whilst it has taken a while to get to this position, we now have a legally binding agreement that will see Telstra progressively structurally separated by decommissioning its copper network and broadband HFC network capability during the NBN rollout. Before the definitive agreements can be considered by Telstra and the government, they need to receive ACCC approval. Today's deal, along with the recent announcements of the Silcar contract and the Ericsson fixed wireless— (Time expired)