Page 2475 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 22 August 2006
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certainly fall well below the World Health Organisation’s set standards. For example—I know that the minister has alluded to this—the tower at Fadden emits 0.45 per cent at full power of the Australian standard, a figure that falls below the World Health Organisation’s standards.
Another point to note is that Telstra commissioned a study on the emission of radiation at any one time at several sites across Canberra—for example, the proposed siting of a tower at Campbell shops where, from my understanding, AM transmitter outputs by far outstripped outputs from mobile phone towers, which really did not figure on the radar, so to speak. The new 3G network will allow data to be sent at rates of up to 40 times quicker than earlier networks, which will mean that in addition to audio, graphics and text, it can also send and receive video, email and live footage.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I should say at this point that, quite disappointingly, Senator Kate Lundy, I believe, was quick to attack the people responsible for the roll-out of the 3G technology here in Canberra. After receiving comprehensive briefings from the relevant organisations, she apparently chose to ignore some of the facts and, rather, sought to utilise such advice in a questionable and highly political manner. To be fair—not again to defend Telstra but just to present the facts—over the past two years Telstra has spent some $50 million to deal with the problems Canberrans were experiencing with broadband technology.
I am confident that all the telecommunications carriers who operate in the ACT are working within the broad framework of the legislation and standards set by the federal government and are demonstrating that the telecommunications industry is highly regulated by every level of government. I would say again at this point that the absence of a high level of government consultation was disappointing and noticeably obvious, and I think Dr Foskey alluded to that. However, this has not been the case with the carriers. Maybe, minister, we can learn that there needs to be a crossover of communication between the carriers, ACTPLA and you.
As I have said, I am confident that the carriers have done everything that they can do within their power to comply. I am informed that there will be a total of some 200 towers finally running in the ACT. As these towers run on very low frequency and at reduced power levels, naturally there will be a need for this number of towers to be rolled out across the territory in order to offer the best possible service without seeking to impact negatively on the health and wellbeing of Canberrans. I am not sure if you mentioned this, minister, but many people may not be aware that a lot of these antennae already are on top of high buildings, well away from communities and schools and so forth. Understandably, there are issues that need to be worked through and I think the carriers are doing everything within their power to do exactly that.
In closing, whilst we must ensure as far as is humanly possible the safety, health and wellbeing of society, technological advancement occurs in all facets of our lives every day. This, I have no doubt, will continue to be the case. Anyone in disagreement with this simple fact is not displaying a conscious awareness of the world in which we live.
MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (4.36): I thank Dr Foskey for bringing this matter to the Assembly today. It gives me an opportunity to address this issue. I have been involved with this issue for the past several months because two resident groups in
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