Mr ANTHONY (9:44 AM) —The exciting communications reforms that this government has just announced are good news for television viewers in my electorate of Richmond and all over rural Australia. Thanks largely to the lobbying effort by many coalition backbenchers—from both the National Party and the Liberal Party—the government has given an iron clad commitment to ensure that regional Australia shares the benefits of the new digital TV broadcasting regime. On behalf of the people of the Tweed, Byron Bay and Ballina, I will personally make sure the government sticks to these commitments.

High definition digital TV technology gives viewers movie quality pictures and CD quality sound as well as many other features. The coalition government has promised the bush will not be left behind and will get the same digital services as the big metropolitan areas. The government will make regional broadcasters in regional areas and on the North Coast—where Mr Deputy Speaker Nehl is from—meet a detailed information plan which includes a firm start date for digital services and a commitment to maintaining viewer coverage. I would like to congratulate the networks, particularly the commercials NBN and Prime, which give very good quality service to the North Coast of New South Wales. People on the North Coast will begin getting a service in less than three years, with the full gamut available by the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004, years ahead of many other developed countries.

Many other measures are also being put into place to ensure that regional broadcasters are given certain concessions so they can build this infrastructure. Clearly it will be a lot more expensive with transmitters and transponders than in the metropolitan areas.

The government will also consider the issue of providing additional support to regional broadcasters once those broadcasters have developed their business plans and evaluated the costs of changing to digital. Under the government's plan, owners of broadcasting transmission facilities will have to give reasonable access to those facilities to digital broadcasters.

The transition period is obviously important. TV programs will be broadcast on both digital and analog for at least eight years to give North Coast residents time to buy new sets. This is reasonable as eight years is longer than the average life of analog sets. It is very different, I might add, to the regime that was put in by the previous government on mobile telephones. Digital TV will provide viewers with far more choice. For example, you can get different camera shots of the same football match, even if it is the local team at Tweed Heads or Coffs Harbour, and selected displays of game and player statistics, as well as access to the Internet.

National broadcasters—particularly the ABC and SBS, which do score very high ratings on the North Coast—are not being left out of the race. They too will broadcast the revolutionary new digital systems. This is a good policy. It is a good policy for regional areas. It goes hand in glove with the regional telecommunication fund which is looking at developing greater Internet services. I do hope that, with the full privatisation of Telstra, we see another large chunk of public money going to building better infrastructure, not just in the area of digital TV but particularly in the area of Internet—(Time expired)