NBN: Critical to a low carbon future
A vital requirement in reducing carbon emissions, increasing productivity and safeguarding Australia's economic and environmental future is the delivery of a high-speed National Broadband Network (NBN).
Telstra's Group Managing Director for Public Policy and Communications, Dr Phil Burgess, said rising fuel and transport prices further highlighted the national importance of building the NBN quickly.
"We live in a society, in Australia and around the world, where transport infrastructure has been built based on the assumption of cheap fuel prices ($3-$10 a barrel). New infrastructure has to be based on the assumption of expensive fuel ($80-$150 a barrel) and the centrepiece is telecommunications," Dr Phil Burgess, Telstra's, Group Managing Director of Public Policy and Communications said.
"Cars, railroads and electricity have all been developed with cheap energy in mind but now telecommunications is the key to work in a energy constrained world, enabling people to substitute telecommunications for travel - as in teleconferencing and telework, where you bring work to people, rather than people to work.
"That's why the Government's National Broadband Network plan is so important." Dr Burgess said.
Dr Burgess yesterday warned that Telstra competitors were doing their best to ensure the NBN would never be built, highlighting their recent regulatory submissions to the NBN.
"They show no interest in the best outcomes for all of Australia and building a 21st century, open access network. Instead, they are abusing the NBN as a self-serving means to advantage themselves by using the Government to tear Telstra apart," Dr Burgess said.