Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Does the minister recall her commitment on the John Laws program on 8 February that she would not spend taxpayers’ money to duplicate an existing broadband service? Didn’t the minister promise that she would only provide a service where one was not otherwise available? Is the minister aware that coverage maps of her new network and the existing Telstra wireless network clearly show that the new network duplicates the existing network? Why is the minister spending up to $1 billion to duplicate an existing service? Isn’t that a clear breach of the minister’s promise in February?

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

Thank you to Senator Wortley for the question. Unfortunately, the premise of the question is entirely wrong, because there is no duplication, which is the same coverage right over the entire network. Of course there is not. With what is being provided with the OPEL proposal, in fact, duplication of any areas at all has been minimised—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

It has been minimised because you cannot push out to 99 per cent of the population without having some minimal duplication of coverage. Duplication, to my way of thinking, is where you have a blanket network over another blanket network. That is certainly not what has been provided. In fact, duplication has been completely minimised. Any kind of coverage where there are already existing services has been minimised—backhaul, for instance, has been leased. Where there are existing towers or existing infrastructure, those, to the extent possible, are being used.

The other important part of the proposal is that it has a degree of commercial leverage, and the government has been very careful to ensure that that portion of taxpayers’ money is to be used in underserved areas where these services are not already available. The commercial part of the proposal is being used to provide whatever coverage on a competitive basis that the operators choose to roll out.

I have been very interested to hear some of the very unsubstantiated and uninformed comment from the Labor Party about the government’s far-reaching plan to provide fast broadband to 99 per cent of the population. I again repeat my clear challenge to Senator Wortley, to Senator Conroy and to all of those over the other side who have a totally unformulated, uncosted proposal—a totally flimsy proposal.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order on my left!

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

My challenge is for the Labor Party to provide the costings, coverage maps and technical detail about their broadband proposal for the full scrutiny of the Australian people. If the Labor Party cannot or do not produce any support for their plan, alarm bells should be ringing.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order! Senators on my left! This week there has been continual noise coming from my left and a refusal to obey the chair. I am calling you all to order and I am serious. If people continue to interject they will be named.

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

In fact, I can tell the Senate that it has been 89 days since the Labor Party put out their so-called broadband plan. There has been nothing more that has been provided for public scrutiny other than a press release. So I say to the Labor Party that if they think they can spend almost $5 billion of taxpayers’ money—

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is that the best you can do?

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

Senator Lundy, come to order!

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

with no greater level of accountability than a mere press release, this is really just a clear example that the Labor Party does not have the experience or the economic clout to be trusted with this country’s economy.

Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Why is the government subsidising the duplication of Telstra’s commercially funded 3G wireless broadband network? Can the minister now guarantee that none of the wireless base stations or backhaul funded by Broadband Connect will be used to duplicate HSDPA 3G mobile coverage in the future?

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

I distinctly heard Senator Wortley accuse the government of subsidising Telstra’s 3G network. The only subsidy that I can recall that we have provided in relation to 3G has been in fact the CDMA towers that have been used in the deployment of the earlier technology. I cannot recall the figure; I think it is something like $150 million that Telstra has received as part of the CDMA rollout, but we certainly have not subsidised the 3G rollout and we have certainly not subsidised any commercial rollout under the OPEL network. The only deployment of the government funding has been to underserved areas.