Transcript: Julia Gillard, Press Conference, Tasmania
Julia Gillard
posted Thursday, 12 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: National Broadband Network; Epping to Parramatta Rail Link; Election Campaign
PM: Well, it’s my pleasure to be in Tasmania today. Obviously I'm joined by the Premier of Tasmania, David Bartlett. I'm also joined by our Minister for Communication, for the Digital Economy and for Broadband, Stephen Conroy. And today we’re her in Tasmania for a very exciting event. You’ve just seen us switch on the National Broadband for commercial applications of the National Broadband here today in Tasmania. The future is here. And the future is this National Broadband investment. Rolling out the National Broadband, ensuring that we have the benefits of National Broadband around the nation is a key part of my economic plan for the future. It’s about jobs. The jobs involved in construction and at construction 25,000 direct jobs will be created. But, importantly it’s about the jobs of the future and how our nation can compete with countries around the world. Without this technology we will fall behind. It’s the same as saying we will export jobs to Singapore, to Korea, to Japan. And without this technology our school children will fall behind. We’ve heard today of examples of using the National Broadband Network to put together a class in Australia with a class in Korea so that children can be as if they were in the one classroom. We’ve heard today too about the health applications. I had the opportunity to talk to Peggy, who is using the National Broadband Network to help her manage her health complaints, and she said to me it was like having a friend in your home, it was a security blanket to know that through the National Broadband Network she could contact the health professionals she needs. In addition, today, as well as seeing the National Broadband Network on display in front of us, feeling the excitement in Tasmania in the places where the National Broadband Network is being used first, here today I very much welcome as well the fact that the National Broadband Network Company has announced we will achieve higher speeds on the National Broadband Network than initially envisaged. Now, having seen this insight into the future, it means I remain absolutely determined, I am completely determined that we will build the National Broadband Network. Every time you get a piece of information about what this technology can achieve, it says to you how vital it is that we roll this technology out for the future. I will build the National Broadband Network. Mr Abbott, if he is elected as prime minister, will not.
As people here may know, last night Mr Abbott and I addressed a town hall meeting in Rooty Hill in NSW. And Mr Abbott at that meeting said, and I quote, in response to a question, he said to a woman called Cassie that she’s asked a great question and went on to say: “I appreciate that young people in particular live in the kind of wired-up world, you know, I mean, I mean, its, my kids spent their whole life on Facebook, and they’re always wanting to download, to download things, but for me broadband is basically is about being able to send or receive an email. For them it’s about downloading movies, downloading songs, all of that kind of thing, and that requires bandwidth. I accept all of that.” Well with those words, I think Tony Abbott has revealed to the Australians people how little he understands the power of this new technology. How little he understands the needs of our modern economy. How little he understands the needs of modern education. How little he understands the needs of modern health care. The choice here, as we move towards election day, could not be clearer. I will build the National Broadband Network. Mr Abbott will not. We’re very happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Yes, Latika.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I'll allow the Minister to explain that.
CONROY: Well, the key difference between the Abbott plan is he has to talk about peak speeds and average speeds. When you buy 50 megs or 100 megs from NBN that’s what you get. There’s no peak, you get that speed. That is the key difference. It’s (inaudible) a piece fibre to your home for the equivalent of the exchange and it delivers you exactly that. Mainland, we’re starting the roll-out process in the five first mainland sites, that’s just outside Townsville in Mundingburra; Armidale, across the university; Kiama Downs, just south of Wollongong ; Brunswick in Melbourne; Wallunga, a little town just south of Adelaide. Those truck should start rolling into the streets in the next few weeks. They’re all contracts that have been signed, and that work will all be going on in the next few weeks. It takes about, as we experienced here in Tasmania, I mean, David you were with me when we said in October last year, we’d turn on the services in the first week of July. We turned on the services in the first weeks of July. We’ve had live customers since the first week of July. On target; on budget. And we are in a position where the trucks will start rolling in the next few weeks when those contracts are already signed.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: Well, it’s a question of whether they want to do it. The wholesale price is what we set. If you look at what’s happening here in Tasmania with the prices, and if you talk to the providers that are here right now, they’re very very excited. Retail price competition is kicking in here in Tasmania. This has been the slowest broadband and the most expensive broadband in the country. Bar none. Lots of people around Australia think they’ve got it worse. This state has had it the worst. The prices you’re seeing now, Primus are offering a bundled package of 25 megs plus phone calls to mobiles, all you calls included in mobile, for 90 bucks. Telstra’s package at the moment, $130 here in Tasmania. iinet were next into the market. They put 25 meg speeds for $50 and Internode came in last, not always the worst way to come in, they’re offering as an introductory offer, I need to make clear these are introductory offers, they are offering 25 megs for $30 and $60 for 100 megs. So those are the sorts of prices that you’re seeing here in Tasmania. The customers have signed up who you saw earlier, customers talking about their experience, and they’re getting exactly what they paid for. Not the peak speed if you use it at midnight, if you’re standing under the tower at a laboratory, you might get 12 megs. That’s the key difference. While, as you all know, please, all turn on your wifi on your mobile phones and start using them, you know what will happen, speeds crash. And that’s the difference between a wireless world and a fibre world. We all want mobility, let me be very clear about this, we are releasing the largest slab of spectrum to be used for wireless broadband. This is not a government that is dedicated purely to fibre. We are releasing as part of the digital dividend, we’re switching off television, analogue TV all across the country, we’re delivering the biggest slab of spectrum just about anywhere in the world. And we’ve got more to come. And so we are very committed to the mobile world. But the country needs the best possible infrastructure, the best possible platform, to take advantage of the sorts of services you saw in health, the sort of services that I talked about, you were probably on the road and obviously you weren’t watching the press club when I did it a couple of days ago, but I talked about a dishwasher in a typical little town that’s been constructed on a smart grid. A little of town. And this dishwasher is set to go at say, three o’clock in the morning off-peak. But it doesn’t just go at three o’clock in the morning off-peak. It actually sends a signal for all the retail electricity providers, and says, who’s got the cheapest price at three o’clock in the morning? And it takes the lowest bid. That’s connectivity. It can’t be done on a wireless network, with all of the applications together you need a fixed fibre line.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: It was announced, well it’s actually being announced at lunchtime. So, Mike Quigley is announcing it at lunchtime. He actually only told me about it yesterday. You may surprised by that. He might have advised my office a couple of days ago, but he actually only told me about it yesterday. I spoke to him about it very briefly last night for the first time. So what the plans that they’re offering, I'm sure if you want to contact Mr Quigley, he’ll be able to start talking to you about that. But just remember, we are the wholesale provider. We are the wholesale provider. We are not the retail company. I'm sure Mike will have more to say on that at lunchtime.
JOURNALIST: Senator, how much has the Government (inaudible)
CONROY: I think the NBN guys said there are 70 trial customers that have been using the networks since the 1st July or 2nd July when it was turned on and we’ve got hundreds queued up now that we’re live all over the place, hundreds waiting to come on. And this will continue to just build as we continue to roll out. We’re going, once we finish these three communities we’re building the next communities. We are required by law, and we welcome David’s suggestions that the laws could be amended so that people have to decline the offer, so we will go and be able to just start connecting. But at the moment, we’re required to go an knock on the door, ask them whether they would like a connection, and we’ve had over 50 per cent in the first five or six months which is far in excess of any of the doomsayers players who claim that this is going to be a massive failure and no-one was interested or wanted it. You’ve seen there this morning why people want this.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: I'd have to ask Adrian that. He’s the chief executive of Tas NBN Co but the first stage they’re, I think, I think it is $37 million and we’ve come in under budget.
JOURNALIST: Senator, hasn’t the technology always been able to provide that 1000 megabits —
CONROY: No, the, I actually, because the, while I tried to get across as much detail as I can, I did ask Mike last night what dimensioning changes have been made and he gave me a very long and very technical explanation. Essentially they, now that they’ve been able to do the engineering work, and this is an ongoing work in progress, now they’ve done the engineering design work, the interfaces at the home the interfaces in the company, have always been able to sustain this sort of speed but they’re now confident that they’ve actually robustly tested it, that the interfaces can sustain the gig. And—
Journalist: (inaudible) this isn’t just a convenient announcement –
CONROY: No, this is, you’ve got to understand, they have got an ongoing program of work. They haven’t stopped because of the election. They’re actually just rolling out in streets, signing contracts, building the customer base. This is just an ongoing – I actually found out about it yesterday. Ok. He may have told my office a couple of days before but I actually only found out about this yesterday. So it was actually news to me yesterday as well.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, look – is there one more question to Senator Conroy and then I’m happy to take that question.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: So far? This the trial, we’ve only just turned the network on six weeks ago.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: Well, let’s be clear. With the deal we’ve done with Telstra, every single Australian that has a fixed line – in the 93 per cent – will receive the National Broadband Network. That’s what the deal is. The deal is they are closing down the copper network. They are taking it away and the only way to get a fixed line service will be on the National Broadband Network. So we will have 100 per cent coverage. A lot of the debate about, oh the take up – the Telstra deal resolves all of that. Will be 100 per cent of people in the 93 per cent fibre footprint that want to be on the network, will be on the network.
PM: And just to answer your question, I know Mr Abbott has used the terminology about not being a technical person. Seriously, that’s not the point. My debate with Mr Abbott is not whether he can go through and describe all the technical details about the National Broadband Network. My debate with Mr Abbott is not that. My debate is with the decision Mr Abbott would make if he was prime minister. And that decision is to stop the National Broadband Network. And the only thing I ask Mr Abbott to understand is that that decision would cost Australians jobs. Mr Abbott made a poor judgment – when this country was threatened by the global financial crisis, he made a decision then that would have cost Australian jobs. The decision he is making to not roll out the National Broadband Network would cost Australians jobs. I don’t ask him to understand anything other than that, but I ask him to understand that and to understand that he is asking for the trust of the Australian people on the basis that he will cost Australians the jobs of the future. We will not be able to compete with countries like Singapore and Korea and Japan that have the benefits of this technology.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister?
PM: Yes?
JOURNALIST: How did you think you went last night at Rooty Hill and also are you glad that Galaxy is going look into the appearance of the son of the Liberal (inaudible)
PM: Oh look, I enjoyed the discussion at Rooty Hill last night. This is an election campaign, I’m very happy to be asked tough questions, very happy to be out there talking to the Australian people about the issues that matter. I thought it was a really good discussion and a really good exchange and it gave me an opportunity being asked questions by people from western Sydney. It gave me an opportunity to explain my economic plan, my plans for jobs, my plans to improve schools and hospitals. It also gave me an opportunity to explain that Mr Abbott lacks an economic plan. He wants to cut schools and hospitals and his only plans for the future are about denying Australians the benefits of the National Broadband Network and, of course, putting up prices on the groceries people use. His economic plan comes down to denying us the jobs of the future and putting a tax on groceries. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I understand that Mr Abbott has made some statements today. My understanding is this: he’d like to have more bureaucrats, but he’s not going to tell people the costs of having more bureaucrats. So we’ve got an uncosted policy about costings, apparently, in this election campaign. Quite remarkable. Maybe Mr Abbott would be better off focusing on getting his expenditure policies in for costing. He continues to race towards $30 billion of announcements and commitments in this election campaign. We continue to face a situation where only 1.5 per cent of Mr Abbott’s new spending commitments have been put in for proper costing. Now this is a risk to the budget, it’s a risk to the budget bottom line, it’s a risk to the budget coming back to surplus in 2013.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, we have the Department of Finance and Administration doing that job. And so, no, I don’t agree with Mr Abbott’s plans to spend more money creating additional public servants to do a job that’s being done now, particularly a plan that’s got no costings attached to it. I also understand that Mr Abbott’s made some statements today about itemising tax. Well, I really think what Mr Abbott should do is Mr Abbott should be saying he would get supermarkets to itemise on people’s grocery bills what his new tax on groceries has cost them each and every time they shop.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister?
PM: Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, look, Mr McKibbin’s views on stimulus are well known. They’ve been the subject of public commentary and public debate in the past. But let’s, you know, look at the impact of economic stimulus, and who has endorsed the Government’s view that economic stimulus was necessary to support jobs. And the figures are unambiguous. The figures have been endorsed by Treasury – of course, they’re Treasury figures. The Reserve Bank itself, the Reserve Bank Governor says that this country would have been in recession without economic stimulus. The work of the OECD has endorsed the stimulus efforts of the Government and the fact we would have been in recession without economic stimulus. International award-winning economists have endorsed the fact that our stimulus package was timely, targeted and temporary; supported jobs, and we would have been in recession without this economic stimulus. Our economic stimulus put, basically, growth into the economy and it is unambiguous from the figures that without that growth, we would have been in recession. So it is right to say, economic stimulus worked to keep this country out of recession. Economic stimulus supported the jobs of 200,000 Australians who would have joined the dole queues if we hadn’t acted to provide economic stimulus. And this, of course, points to, once again, the poor economic judgment that Mr Abbott made when the global financial crisis threatened this country. He would have had us in recession. He made the wrong choice on jobs then, he’s making the wrong choice now in not building the National Broadband Network. The equivalent of saying let’s export Australian jobs to Singapore, to Korea and to Japan. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, look, there have been discussions obviously conducted at the ministerial level, via the Minister, Anthony Albanese, and he talked about those discussions yesterday. This is a vital piece of infrastructure for western Sydney, and I’m determined to deliver infrastructure for Australian cities.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I made the announcement yesterday. I made the announcement yesterday, because I am determined to provide this rail link. I am determined to provide this benefit for western Sydney and for the people of Sydney. Just like I’m determined to see infrastructure improve in our cities around the country. In my own area in Melbourne, of course, we are building a major rail link. I’ve announced during the campaign our investment in a major rail link in Brisbane. We’ve announced, of course, investments around the country – Perth and other places. This is important to the shape of our cities, to easing congestion, to productivity and participation and I am determined to build the Parramatta to Epping Rail Link.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, the Government obviously makes infrastructure decisions periodically. We make provision in the budget for ongoing infrastructure because we want to be a government that’s making a difference to congestion and to infrastructure needs. And the approach we’re taking, announcing projects where the costings are transparent and where we have made proper budget provision is a very stark contrast to the fact that Warren Truss, the man who would be deputy prime minister if Mr Abbott was elected, announced $40 billion of projects in around 40 seconds at the Coalition’s campaign launch. Yes? I’ll go here then I’ll come over to Steven. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Look, I’ve always said this was going to be a tough close contest. I’ve always said it was going to be a photo finish and Australians will make their decision on the 21st August and I believe that decision will come down to who’s got the better economic plan to support jobs, who will make investments in schools and in health care, who will build the National Broadband Network and who believes in tackling the challenge of climate change.
On each of these areas, Mr Abbott – no plan for jobs, no economic plan. Cuts to investments in schools including computers in schools. Cuts to health care including electronic health records. He will not build the National Broadband Network and, of course, he has dismissed climate change science with a wave of his hand and with a description of climate change science as “absolute crap”. I believe that Australians will make a decision on this basis. That’s what I’m fighting for and I’m certainly fighting against Mr Abbott’s plan to put a tax on groceries. You had a question for Senator Conroy?
JOURNALIST: There’s some fairly impressive video conferencing around the room today but isn’t that also possible at 12 MB per second which is what the Coalition will offer anyway?
CONROY: No, the thing about the high definition video conferencing that you seeing there today is it requires symmetry of, well an engineering joke, if you’re English, probably about 4 up. If you’re Italian, probably about six – an engineering joke.
So the sort of –
JOURNALIST: (inaudible).
CONROY: No, it’s the upload, it’s not the download. You can only do video conferencing if you have sufficient upload and the sorts of speed their talking about with their wireless will not deliver this. It’s a simple, it’s an engineering fact. It’s one that they just continue to ignore, they continue to try and pretend that a wireless network with a peak speed, let me be very clear Alan, peak speeds are not the main speeds, but you need to have up capacity as well as down if you’re going to deliver this.
JOURNALIST: What’s the upload rate at 12MB per second in a wireless application?
CONROY: It depends on what the, how many people are using it on a given day. That’s the point.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
CONROY: Well they haven’t actually identified what the upload, I have asked that question, in fact at the Press Club I asked Tony Smith to tell us what his upload speed was going to be. I mean, the Doxis 3HFC cable that everyone keeps telling me is going to change the world, it’s dimensioned, it’s configured at 100 down and two up. It cannot do that on a two up. It’s that simple. You can’t move into the modern, you cannot monitor Peggy in the way that we just did from a hospital or from a nursing centre that is doing these with the wireless or even HFC at the moment.
Now, those are decisions that Telstra made, but Tony Smith has to tell us how he’s going to configure it. How many towers he’s going to build? How many people are going to be using it? What the average speed is that most people will get, not the peak speed. Those are the engineering questions that frankly you should be asking Tony Smith. Not me. I want him to answer those exact questions but what he’s going to have to admit is the sort of services we’ve seen here today cannot be delivered.
JOURNALIST: Senator Conroy does the upgraded speed, does that cost more money?
CONROY: No, it’s just part of the package.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’re all criticising Tony Abbott for spending too much in the election campaign, you’re also saying that you will be able to pay back the debt in three years and today this announcement we’ve been aware that it’s going to cost more than seven times what Tony Abbott’s is going to cost - $43 billion. Is this the right time to be investing in this sort of technology?
PM: Well let’s just get very clear here. This is provision in the Government’s budget. With this provision, the Government will bring the budget back to surplus in 2013 and let’s get a little bit clear about the question of costings. Everything I do in this election campaign will be properly costed. I’m not going to run away from that scrutiny. Mr Abbott is hiding from that scrutiny and that’s because he knows his costings don’t add up. In this election campaign everything we announce will be properly costed and it will not add one cent to the budget bottom line. The budget is coming back to surplus in 2013 and we will build the National Broadband Network with the budget coming back to surplus in 2013 and, you know, just in terms of the questions in the room, obviously very happy for Stephen to respond to those questions but I think we’ve got to be a little bit real here. I mean, anybody who has any understanding of the National Broadband Network knows it is an infinitely superior technology to anything that Tony Smith or is it Paul Fletcher today, or are they about to further delegate to someone whose name we don’t even know yet in the Coalition, than anything that they have on offer and, you know, in the words of the family we saw before, the family that had deliberately tried to test the system by running around the house, plugging absolutely everything in, downloading everything at the one time that they could possibly think of to test the system. They didn’t find the constraint and that’s because of the technology of this system and we all know Mr Abbott got himself in a confused mess about peak loads, but peak loads aren’t a question with the National Broadband Network. He’s in that mess because he’s trying to disguise his failure to embrace this technology with a substandard plan.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, at Rooty Hill last night, were you surprised or at least taken aback by the level of anti-New South Wales Labor sentiment? Do you think that (inaudible) to a lot of commentators saying that Tony Abbott’s (inaudible)?
PM: Well look, I’m not afraid of tough questions and there were some tough questions asked last night. That’s a good thing. That’s what election campaigns should be about. Fronting up to scrutiny, talking to people, taking their questions, understanding their concerns, responding to what they’ve got to say. In this election campaign I’ve been doing that. I’ve been volunteering, indeed enthusiastic, for engagements like Q&A, like the event at Rooty Hill last night. Mr Abbott of course is taking a different approach. He’s running from scrutiny as far as he can. He’s dragged into those events reluctantly at best and the single biggest thing he’s running from scrutiny on is whether or not the promises he’s made in this election campaign add up. He does not want to put his figures in because he knows they do not add up. Now that’s a big economic risk from a man with no economic plan who would have made the wrong judgement on jobs when the global financial crisis threatened. He’s making the wrong judgements on jobs and health and education for the future. He won’t build the National Broadband Network but does want to put a tax on everybody’s groceries.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) can you guarantee that there won’t be any leaking?
PM: Look, Treasury will obviously cost these figures through the Charter of Budget Honesty process that’s been used in the past by professional Treasury officers.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) made over $1 billion worth of promises beyond the forward estimates including major infrastructure projects. How can you say that these (inaudible) when they’re not in forward estimates?
PM: Because the Government makes ongoing provision for infrastructure. Infrastructure having Nation Building 2 as a part of our forward budget is already what the Government is committed to. If you look across the Government’s budgets over time there has been provisioning for infrastructure. We did that in Nation Building 1. As a standard part of the budget we will Nation Building Two and obviously we’ve made some announcements about the use of Nation Building 2, but a standard part of budget provisioning.
CONROY: Could I just add something on that. If you look at what the Coalition did with their broadband plan, they have put most of their expenditure outside the forward estimates. Five per cent of one of their biggest parts of that component is spent in the forward estimates. The rest is spent after 2014. So, I think the questions to people who want to try and pretend they’re doing things and not have them properly costed or included should absolutely be asked of Tony Smith, Andrew Robb and Tony Abbott. Because five per cent of their roll-out of the fibre around the country is spent in the forward estimates. The rest is spent in the never never.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: The first thing I’ll do, I’ll be sitting there with Senator Conroy, I imagine, on the first day that I’m hooked into the NBN. But you know what? It will only ever get to point, it will only ever get to that point depending on the outcome of the 21st August. So, whether I’m on the NBN, whether anybody else in this country’s on the NBN, depends on what happens on the 21st August. I will build it. If I’m re-elected, I will build it. I’ll be very happy to sit with Senator Conroy and to use it on the very first day it’s available to me. I’ll never have that opportunity if Tony Abbott becomes prime minister of this country and neither will anyone else. Thanks very much.
Tags: Abbott, Australia, Broadband, Gillard, Labor, NBN