Senator STEPHENS (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) (2:53 PM) —My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Is the minister aware of recent comments by her colleague Senator Joyce: ‘If wireless is so good, why don’t they use it in the cities? Fibre to every corner of the country is the best outcome.’ Don’t Senator Joyce’s comments reinforce concerns that both he and Senator Nash first raised in the 2005 Page Research Centre report on telecommunications in non-metropolitan Australia? Didn’t that report recommend a feasibility study into the cost of laying fibre optics for a fibre-to-home broadband rollout in rural and regional Australia? Hasn’t the minister ignored the Page report for the last two years? What guarantee can the minister now give that we will not end up with first-class fibre broadband in five cities and second-class wireless broadband in the bush?

Senator COONAN (Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) —I thank Senator Stephens for the question. I do not know why Senator Conroy gives these questions to poor Senator Stephens and tries to get her to frame them in such a way that suggests she actually knows something about the rollout of either a wireless network or a fibre network. I can assure you that the Labor Party do not have a clue about the rollout of either a fibre network or a wireless network. They do not have a clue about the characteristics of a wireless network or what may be the superior or less superior qualities when comparing fibre to wireless. When you compare fibre and wireless, it is important to understand where you are actually putting it. Obviously, in metropolitan areas fibre has some superior capabilities. Good luck to the Labor Party if they seriously think that in rural and regional areas fibre can go beyond about one kilometre from an exchange—

Senator George Campbell interjecting—

The PRESIDENT —Order! Senator Campbell, I will not warn you again. Next time, you will be suspended.

Senator COONAN —and pity help those poor people in rural and regional Australia who happen to live beyond the reach of an exchange. That is why wireless technology—this cutting-edge technology—has been developed right around the world and is now being deployed in all comparable rural and regional situations to ensure that there is a proper reach of at least 20 kilometres from a base station. So instead of treating rural and regional Australia as some second-class backwater, as the Labor Party would propose—and as Senator Stephens endorses, obviously—we will have universal coverage for all Australians, irrespective of where they live. Both Labor and Senator Stephens should go back to the drawing board and understand what they are talking about before they make comparisons about something they know nothing about.

Senator STEPHENS —Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for her response. I advise her that I live in the country and have the lousiest dial-up service imaginable when I am trying to deal with the work we are doing here—like most people who live outside a metropolitan area. Is the minister aware that the Page report advocates parity of service for rural and regional telecommunications services? Can the minister explain how access by metropolitan Australia to broadband speeds 50 times faster than in rural and regional Australia constitutes parity of service?

Senator COONAN (Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) —I commend Senator Stephens on asking a supplementary question and for nominating dial-up broadband, or dial-up internet, as such a terrible technology, because about two years ago a Senate committee, dominated by the Labor Party, was suggesting that this government should mandate dial-up right across the country at a cost of $5 billion. This is the Labor Party picking technologies and not having a clue what they are talking about. If taking $5 billion to roll out something across Australia sounds familiar, then it is. The Labor Party will make another mistake with a fibre rollout, as they did in suggesting mandatory dial-up for the internet. The important point about this debate is that all Australians deserve a service, not just the few whom the Labor Party favour.