Page 2471 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
broadband, are new technology, offering users of mobile phones the broadband-type internet service which we increasingly are changing over to in our homes and offices. Canberra, as the capital city of Australia, needs to maintain advanced telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructure to maintain competitiveness with the major capital cities.
There is significantly increasing demand for more sophisticated mobile communications connectivity when we are not in the home or office—for example, the ability for our mobile phones to provide large volumes of text, data and video in addition to the more basic mobile phone services. The new 3G network will provide benefits for the broader community, including the small business sector; professional groups such as medical practitioners, who can obtain patient information away from the surgery; and consumers, including young people and other members of the public, who want to obtain real time information and/or services in the cultural, entertainment or leisure categories. 3G technology also improves emergency responses by allowing the precise location of handsets to be identified. It is worth highlighting that recent US research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University demonstrates that communities with broadband have more jobs, enjoy higher property values and form more new businesses than communities without it.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as has been indicated on previous occasions, the final 3GIS Telstra and Hutchinson consortium network plan was approved by the chief planning executive of the ACT Planning and Land Authority on 23 March this year. The draft network plan was prepared, notified and decided in accordance with the provisions of the authority Guideline for telecommunications (mobile phone) networks, which borrows as required from the Australian government requirements. And here I want to address the issue that Dr Foskey raised in her speech around the issue of safety.
The ACT government implements the national standards for protection of residents in relation to electromagnetic radiation. These are determined by respected and reputable bodies, independent of industry, who make assessments as to the appropriate safeguards in terms of potential exposure to EMR from mobile phone technology. That is what we implement. Other councils may have decided on other standards but they are clearly not based on any evidence or any robust analysis. We rely on the Australian government authority’s national standards. That is an appropriate and responsible position and I reject absolutely any assertion that the government is negligent or is not having regard to proper standards and safeguards.
The network plan was determined to be the most appropriate way to manage the entirety of the 3GIS proposal and allow everyone to see its full extent. Again, I refute the claims made by Dr Foskey. Dr Foskey said that no-one knew the extent of the plan and where all the towers were going to be. Well, that is simply not the case, because the network plan was developed so that people did not just see one tower in isolation in their suburb; they saw the whole network. They saw in the network plan where every single tower was proposed to be located. The network plan identified every single site, and it was in one document that was publicly notified. So the suggestion that people could not see the entirety of the network is again wrong.
The draft network plan was publicly notified between 30 November 2005 and 22 December 2005. However, because of the Christmas school holiday period, late
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .