ADJOURNMENT: Telecommunications in Rural and Regional Australia

Senator NASH (New South Wales) (9.50 pm)—I rise tonight to address the vital issue of tele-communications in rural and regional Australia. Telecommunications plays a significant role in any modern economy. There is no doubt that telecommunications is vital for the future of rural and regional communities—indeed, for the nation as a whole. Telecommunications can reduce the ob-stacles of distance and time. It contributes to economic efficiency and leads to increases in produc-tivity, particularly through the delivery of services such as education, health and social services, to name but a few. Improving telecommunications in this country is in the national interest. Unfortu-nately, most of Australia’s regional communities are not realising the true benefits of 21st century telecommunications because of the age-old issue of supply and demand. Prior to entering this place, I had the opportunity to chair The Nationals’ Page Research Centre inquiry into regional telecommunications. The report, which was brought forward in March this year, made several recommendations and put forward two key findings: firstly, competition is the best mechanism to deliver services and infrastructure to our rural and regional communities; and, secondly, where there is market failure, the government has a social obligation to assist in the de-livery of those services and infrastructure platforms. Under the current legislative framework, there is effectively little opportunity for competition to deliver other than basic telecommunications services into our regions. This means there is little incentive for Telstra as the existing major provider to deliver services capable of carrying our re-gions into the future. What we need to take our regional telecommunications services and infra-structure into the future is a regulatory and legislative framework which both encourages competi-tion and enables the government to financially assist where there is market failure. The framework must also provide an environment that encourages private sector investment in telecommunica-tions in our regions, representatives of many of which approached us through the Page Research Centre inquiry. In recent months the Nationals, under the leadership of Mark Vaile and John Anderson before him, have worked closely with our coalition colleagues and taken steps to address this vital issue of telecommunications in the bush. A little over 2½ weeks ago, the Howard-Vaile government put forward a $3.1 billion regional telecommunications package that I believe addresses the issues of competition, service delivery and infrastructure funding for telecommunications in the bush. Un-der this package, the Howard-Vaile government plans to boost competition by ensuring opera-tional separation of Telstra. This would enable greater transparency through the separation of the wholesale and retail arms of Telstra, which would ensure a fair and level playing field for new players entering the regional telecommunications marketplace. In simple terms, this means other telecommunications companies would be able to access the Telstra network on the same condi-tions as Telstra’s own retail arm. I do not believe that under any circumstances we should allow a monopoly telecommunications carrier to operate in rural and regional Australia. I do not believe a monopoly carrier will provide the level of telecommunications services and infrastructure necessary to grow our regions into the future. I also believe the government must improve the enforcement powers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Communications and Media Author-ity. The $3.1 billion package identifies $2 billion for a communications fund. The Nationals leader, Mark Vaile—and I commend him on this—proposed the fund to future proof regional telecommu-nications in the long term, to help fund the rollout of new technologies and to address areas of market failure. The Howard-Vaile government also plans to spend $1.1 billion over the next four years to upgrade mobile and broadband internet services in regional Australia, and we should ex-pect to see a great deal of private sector investment in this area as well. I certainly welcome this government’s commitment to maintaining the universal service obliga-tion, under which Telstra is required to guarantee access to standard phone services. In addition to the USO, I believe we need to see a strengthening of the customer service guarantee which sets minimum time frames for the installation and repair of phone services and a strengthening of the national reliability framework. Through Connect Australia and the entire package, The Nationals have done what we were elected to do: deliver efficient and effective telecommunications services to the seven million people who live in non-metropolitan Australia. I repeat that—that is what we were elected to do. The Nationals will not shy away from our responsibility to make sure that we get this right. This means many more businesses will soon be able to do more of their work online. Busi-nesses from towns like Yass, an hour’s drive from this place; Yamba, in the state’s north; my own home town of Young, in the central west; and Yatte Yattah, on the South Coast, will all now be able to compete more efficiently and effectively in an increased marketplace. Improvements in efficiency and effectiveness will lead to the creation of more jobs, which will in turn contribute to the broader economic stimulation of local economies. We know that our rural and regional com-munities need a telecommunications platform that will take them into the future. They must be able to play on the same field as their city cousins and their cousins right across the world. We need to ensure that this happens. Importantly, more ordinary Australians in rural and regional areas will get access to the services that the people in the cities take for granted, such as reliable mobile phone services and higher internet download speeds. Our people in our rural and regional towns not only need to have these services and this infrastructure delivered but deserve to have it delivered. The government’s tele-communications package will, I believe, create a strong telecommunications platform that will encourage growth and deliver the services and infrastructure we need in our regions. As I said in my first speech in this place, the Copper Age was 5,300 years ago and I believe that is where copper wire telephone networks belong. We need to embrace optic fibre, wireless and satellite so we can ensure that we have the right mix of telecommunications infrastructure to take rural and regional Australian into the future, and I believe the government’s telecommunications package addresses this in a very significant and complete way.

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