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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-03 Daily Xml
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OPEL BROADBAND NETWORK

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government in this chamber a question about the cancellation of the Opel broadband network contract.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER: Yesterday, Adelaide Now, the online version of The Advertiser, ran a story under the headline 'Opel broadband network cancelled—and so are 500 South Australian jobs', stating:

Hopes of creating 500 jobs in Adelaide by 2012 have been dashed after the Federal Government cancelled the $958m Opel broadband contract.

Opel is a joint venture of the companies of Optus and Elders. The statement goes on to say that they had expected their business to grow tenfold, and they are quoted as saying:

In four or five years from now we'll have 400-500 people, the vast majority based in Adelaide.

The jobs would have mostly been in sales and technical support for a network aimed at providing broadband to over one million rural and regional customers. The stock exchange statement provided by the companies Futuris and Singapore Telecommunications stated:

The Government also was concerned that networks would be duplicated as it has proposed its own fibre-to-the-node broadband plan, according to these statements...The cancelled plan would have delivered improved broadband services to 889,322 underserved premises in rural and regional Australia within two years at metro-comparable prices.

First of all, it appears to me that the federal government is setting up a monopoly by cancelling this contract. However, I am informed that its fibre-to-the-node broadband plan will provide services only to rural townships and a radius of approximately 10 kilometres around those rural townships, thereby again excluding the people who most need fast broadband services. My questions are:

1. Has the state government contacted its federal allies or been contacted by its federal colleagues with any explanation for the withdrawal of these proposed services to regional Australia?

2. What, if any, alternative is the state government proposing?

3. Is it correct that their alternative proposal, if it exists, will service fewer than half the proposed customer base?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:05): I am not aware of what communication has been made between the state and federal governments, but I am certainly aware of the issue of broadband access, because it was a significant issue in the run-up to the last federal election. The federal Labor Party went into that election with a very clear policy—in fact, and if I recall correctly, one of the first policies the Rudd government released at the start of the campaign was to improve broadband access to all Australians.

So, the federal government has a clear mandate to implement its policies in relation to broadband network and I do not think it needs the approval of the states for the implementation of that platform. However, if there is any more information that I can provide to the honourable member I will do so.

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