Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to the Howard government’s plans to send a direct mail-out to 3.1 million households in regional Australia to ‘raise awareness of the government’s initiatives for regional telecommunications’. Can the minister confirm that the purpose of this campaign is simply to promote the Howard government’s second-rate broadband fix? Isn’t it the case that this mail-out will include fridge magnets? Can the minister confirm that this mail-out is part of a $6.4 million advertising blitz to try to convince regional Australia that the Howard government’s broadband policy is not just a second-rate political fix to get it through to the next election?

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to Senator Wong is no.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister come clean on just how many taxpayer dollars will be spent by this government on promoting its second-rate broadband fix? Given that the Howard government is budgeted to spend $1.8 billion of taxpayers’ money over the life of the government until election day, can the government really be believed when it says that it will not be spending any money advertising this broadband fix? Tell us, Minister, how much money are you intending to spend on advertising your second-rate broadband policy to regional Australia? What has been determined by GCU and what will be spent from your portfolio?

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, who has been running around trying to drum up some sort of case on spending in telecommunications, has, I am afraid, fallen on fallow ground. She is fishing up a very dry gully. The rural telecommunications campaign—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You have asked a question; allow the minister to answer it.

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was just saying, Senator Wong is fishing up a very dry gully because the rural telecommunications campaign that related to consumer rights in telecommunications was posted out two months ago.