Mr WAKELIN (9:52 AM) —I want to say a few words this morning about the current mobile phone discussions. As we well know, the 1992 agreement which we were locked into by the previous government did create some inconvenience. But the government and the Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts (Senator Alston) have worked very hard over the last couple of years to make sure that all that could be done is being done to provide services—and this may come as a surprise to many Australians—to those areas which do not have mobile phone services.

We hear that 94 per cent of the population of Australia has access to mobile phones, but that in fact means to only 10 per cent of the land mass, so 90 per cent of the land mass has no coverage whatsoever. With the negotiations that the minister has undertaken over the last 12 months with Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone, there have been significant steps forward. The advent of the new technology out of the US, I understand, like CDMA technology which gives equivalent coverage to analog, provides us with significant hope that the advantages of digital can be brought into the bush, particularly to those areas which are seen to be too sparse for the carriers now. With digital technology or the GSM technology and with the CDMA technology with the auction of the new spectrum now, they can be brought into play in those areas which currently do not have the terrestrial based mobile phones.

For the more remote areas of Australia, probably the low earth orbiting satellite option is the best option that is going to be there and available in September this year. I must compliment the government—

Mr Slipper —It is a good government.

Mr WAKELIN —It is, Mr Whip. We are very pleased that we are able to serve in government. The government has worked diligently to provide the most up-to-date technology and to provide competition within the carriers of telecommunications around Australia. There is no doubt in my mind that as the years go by we will be seen to have had a government which had the foresight to make the investment particularly through the regional telecommunications infrastructure fund to allow regional Australia to have the best possible communications available to us.