Nick Minchin

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has failed to answer when he will release coverage maps showing where the more than 2 million Australians, who will get broadband connections almost 10 times slower than everybody else under his planned $43 billion debt splurge, reside.

Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Nick Minchin said Senator Conroy failed to answer this fundamental question when asked during an appearance at the National Press Club today.

"Under his latest proposal Senator Conroy claims 90 per cent of the population will get fibre to the premise connections of 100 megabits per second, with the remaining 10 per cent or more than 2 million, to get speeds of 12 megabits delivered through wireless and satellite services," Senator Minchin said.

"The Minister has already made it perfectly clear that more than 500,000 Australians living in towns of around 1000 or less people will not get fibre to the premise, but he must now come clean on where the other 1.5 million are located.

"Labor's plan to spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to create new classes of broadband 'haves' and have nots' is quite rightly sparking outrage in rural and regional centres across the country.

"It is clear that many rural and regional centres with far more than 1000 people will also miss out on the 100 megabits and it is time Senator Conroy released detailed coverage maps to show which areas will get what," Senator Minchin said.

"Under Senator Conroy's original failed proposal 98 per cent of the population would have gained the same outcome of fibre to the node services delivering minimum speeds of 12 megabits per second, for a taxpayer spend of up to $4.7 billion.

"Labor now wants to spend $43 billion, but has thrown the idea of parity out the window, telling more than 2 million Australians, that comparatively, it considers them second-class citizens when it comes to broadband,” Senator Minchin said.

"The Minister has also failed to explain what his $43 billion network costing figure is based on. As we know the original $4.7 billion figure for Labor’s first proposal was a direct lift from a 2005 Telstra report.

"In addition, Senator Conroy’s failure to release the reports of his NBN expert’s panel and the ACCC on regulatory issue also suggests he has something to hide," Senator Minchin said.