Senator NASH (New South Wales) (4.30 pm)—It is quite extraordinary to continually hear Labor tell us how much they care about telecommunications and how much they care about telecommunications in rural and regional areas. Labor do not care about the bush. They are continually—they always have been and always will be—dominated by city interests and doing things in the interests of the cities. We only have to look at Senator Conroy to see a perfect example of this. He is supposed to be trying to run the Labor show on telecommunications, and I notice he has not even bothered to stay in the chamber to be part of this debate. He is the quintessential city slicker. He rarely gets out of Melbourne, unless he is coming to Canberra, and he is trying to tell this place that he cares about rural and regional Australia! He does not know where he stands on Telstra. He continues to contradict himself.
In just one interview yesterday, in the course of only a minute, Senator Conroy said that Telstra was ‘starved of capital and had not made the necessary capital investments to keep the company profitable’. ‘That is the real problem,’ he said. Less than a minute later, he said, ‘I mean, this is a company that under the current regulations has just posted the single largest corporate profit in Australia’s history—a few weeks ago—$4 billion.’ So which is it, Senator Conroy? He is not even here to answer. Is Telstra starved of capital and failing to maintain profitability or a rampant mo-nopoly making enormous profits? You do not know where you are. On 28 July, he said:
Labor knows that the vast majority of Australians believe that the best way to ensure that Telstra provides reasonable services in rural and regional Australia is to keep it in majority public ownership.
Then, on 16 August, he said that the ownership structure of Telstra made no difference to most Australians one way or the other. So which one is it? Here is a senator who is trying to lead his side’s debate on telecommunications and he has no idea where he is on this entire issue.
The hypocrisy of Labor on this issue is nothing short of breathtaking. Who sold Qantas? Labor did. Who sold the Commonwealth Bank? Labor did. Make no mistake, they would sell Telstra too without doing anything to make sure that there is a way forward to improve services and infra-structure in our rural and regional communities. Their leader, Kim Beazley, has admitted that, as finance minister, he attended a meeting with BHP to discuss the sale of Telstra and that his de-partment consulted with investment banks and prepared a strategy paper for a five-stage sale of Telstra. So we have Labor saying, ‘Don’t sell Telstra,’ and their leader is on the record as previ-ously having discussed how to do it. It is absolutely hypocritical.
Labor, in government, were the party that forced the abolition of the analog network in 2000. They took absolutely no steps to secure a replacement. They left a huge mess in rural and regional Australia and, as a person of the bush, I remember only too well the effect that that had. All I can say is: thank goodness that this government took steps to put the CDMA network in place, which was the only thing that saved us. And Labor try and tell us that they care about telecommunica-tions in the regions. They have no plan for improving service and infrastructure in the regions—none at all. They bleat on, saying, ‘Don’t sell Telstra,’ but they have no constructive ideas at all on how to improve telecommunications not only in the bush, but right across this nation.
Just saying, ‘Don’t sell Telstra,’ will not fix telecommunications services in the bush. What will fix telecommunications services in the bush is this government’s package that we are putting in place to deliver to the people right across this nation. I would like to make a few comments about that. The Howard-Vaile government has put forward a very honest and open package that ad-dresses the key issues of competition, service delivery and infrastructure funding for telecommu-nications in the bush. Make no mistake, there is quite a simple comparison here: Labor has no plan; we do.
Under the Connect Australia program, $1.1 billion over the next four years will go to upgrading mobile and broadband internet services in regional Australia, and we expect to see a great deal of private sector investment going into the regions to make sure that we have the services and infra-structure we need. This government will spend $2 billion on a communications fund to future-proof regional telecommunications in the long term, help fund the roll-out of new technology and address areas of market failure. It is about getting those telecommunications technologies out there and in place to make sure that the platform goes forward into the future.
Make no mistake, the Howard-Vaile government has a plan. Labor has nothing: nada; not a thing. We plan to boost competition by ensuring the operational separation of Telstra, which will enable greater transparency through the separation of the wholesale and retail arms of Telstra. It will ensure a fair and level playing field for new players entering the regional telecommunications marketplace and it will allow other telecommunications companies to access the Telstra network on the same conditions as Telstra’s own retail arm. We should not under any circumstances allow a monopoly telecommunications carrier to operate in rural and regional Australia.
Opposition senators interjecting—
Senator NASH —If you listen, you might learn something and you might come up with a plan. A monopoly carrier will not provide the level of telecommunications services and infrastructure necessary to grow our regions in the future. Unlike the Labor Party, this government realises that competition is the best mechanism to deliver services and infrastructure out into our rural and re-gional communities. We only ever hear bleating from the other side, who say, ‘Don’t sell Telstra.’ We hear nothing about the way forward for telecommunications. Under the current legislative framework, there is effectively little opportunity for competition to deliver other than basic tele-communications services, and there is little incentive for Telstra as the existing major provider to deliver services capable of carrying our regions into the future. Our rural and regional communi-ties need a telecommunications platform that will take them into the future, and that is exactly what the package that the Howard-Vaile government is proposing will do.
Senator Wong interjecting—
Senator NASH —Labor has done nothing. You sit over there and bleat and carry on, but you have not done a thing except to switch off the analog network—which worked so well in the bush—and you had no plan whatsoever to actually put things in place. This government’s package will deliver competition, it will deliver services, and it will deliver better infrastructure out into the regions so that we will have a better telecommunications platform for everyone in Australia—not just rural and regional areas but everybody right across this nation. We have a plan, you don’t, and we are going to implement ours.
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