Chloe Munro's speaking notes refer to ppt slides. Are you able to add them to the site? Thanks

I'm sceptical Chloe. I think Garnaut correctly addresses the high carbon industries of energy, transport, & agriculture. We already have ubiquitous ADSL broadband and NextG coverage. What impact has this had on carbon emissions? Approximately: zero. I still have to drive to (and from) work, I still get my food transported 1000km (thank you supermarkets), I still rely on an abundance of cheap coal to power my house. I don't see how the NBN is going to change this situation. My ADSL modem is more than capable of connecting me to my work (I work for Telstra) but it is Telstra's corporate culture that stops me working from home, not the lack of an NBN. I suspect this is the case for any office based workplaces. While the NBN (or even Telstra existing network infrastructure) will have some part to play in reducing our carbon footprint, I think it will only be a small part. What we really need are: renewable energy, electric cars, an appetite for kangaroo meat and a population reduction policy.

An other excellent presentation by a Telstra executive. Perhaps Garnaut's Telecommunications omission was due to 'out of sight, out of mind'. After all, Chloe talks of the future, but Garnaut thinks of the present. VIZ.. "the next increment of opportunity will come when high speed broadband and IP connectivity is available in all neighbourhoods and to SMEs as well as the big end of town – and that means NBN. I predict that the flexibility and added efficiency that
comes with remote access, both fixed and mobile, is going to be the biggest driver of
organisational change over the next decade." ....A critical omission, one wonders how many more are there?

Ricky Lee you don't think that the need for data security may be the reason you can't work from home? How do you think customers would feel knowing that strangers have access to their private details at any time?

Ricky, I agree with your comment that some of the biggest contributions to reducing emissions will have to come from the supply side, such as coal-fired power and agriculture. However with the targets that the government has in mind, reductions on the demand side will be important too.

The Climate Risk report commissioned by Telstra "Towards a High-Bandwidth Low-Carbon Future" shows how use of telecommunications could contribute nearly 5% reduction in Austrlaia's annual emissions by 2015. That's a pretty substantial number. Interestingly, the seven opportunities discussed in the report include a way to increase use of renewable electircity sources.
I'd also agree with you that we're not taking full advantage of the opportunities to use the capabilitiy we have now, such as mobile broadband using the NextG network, to reduce emissions. Telecommunications networks are an enabler but not the whole story. Generally people and businesses will need a number of reasons such as cost savings and convenience to change their practices. Right now emissions reduction isn't a big influence on most decisions. This will change as people become more concerned about the risks of climate change and of course as costs go up.
Finally, I think you under-estimate the difference that the NBN can make. First of all, it will bring high-speed broadband to more places and with more capacity. This will enable more kinds of work to be "location-neutral". It also opens up the potential for more complex emissions saving applications which link multiple devices across a wide geography. In the long term, the potential for telecommunications to be used to reduce emissions may be less about the things that people do (e.g. substituting for travel) and more about highly efficient production and distribution systems.

Ricky, please treat Chloe's response as a learning curve. Thank you for provoking this important discussion.