43/07

Sunday 29 April 2007

Labor missing in action on Australia’s digital future

Australians have every right to feel concerned should Labor win government, after Australia’s digital future was not mentioned at this weekend’s ALP National Conference, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan said today.

“This blatant omission of such an important issue only confirms that Labor still has no plan for the rollout of digital television in Australia,” Senator Coonan said.

“This proves that Labor have learnt absolutely nothing from its complete failure to plan for the analogue switch off on mobile phones, which left Australians in the lurch in the move to digital. Australia can not afford to repeat Labor’s mistakes of the past.”

“Labor is making a habit of creating policy on the run and is continually being caught out. Whether it is on broadband, climate change or digital TV, Labor think that it can make it all the way to election day with glib lines and no detail on anything.”

“Labor is robbing Australians of the opportunity for new digital television services. But even worse, Labor is robbing Australians of the digital dividend that the switchover from analogue would bring.

Earlier this year, Labor’s Finance spokesman Lindsay Tanner announced that Labor would abolish Digital Australia as part of their $3 billion savings plan.

“Abandoning plans to set up Digital Australia is economic irresponsibility of the first order,” Senator Coonan said.

“This economic myopia comes on the back of revelations last week that Labor had based its discredited broadband plan on figures that would be a decade old by the time the project had been completed.

“Again, Australians deserve better than hastily cobbled together headline grabbing stunts, backed by flawed economics which deliver nothing more than a string of empty promises,” Senator Coonan said.

Media Contact: Fiona Telford - 02 6277 7480