Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and they are clearly struggling with the NBN. There have already been massive delays, missed deadlines and broken promises. The losers are the people of my electorate of Swan as well as the people of Australia, who are still waiting for the first house to receive better broadband services.

The question has to be asked: if they still have not managed to connect a small trial site in a small part of one of 30 suburbs in my electorate, what hope is there for the broadband black spots in Swan, out in Cloverdale and in Kewdale which have not yet been shortlisted for connection? I know a constituent in Cloverdale who has been told he simply cannot connect to broadband as he is in a black spot. The City of Belmont put in a submission for broadband to the NBN that was rated highly by the office of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy before the last election, but it was not selected and to this day it has not been shortlisted. The black spots in Swan also have not been addressed.

The residents and businesses enjoyed meeting the member for Wentworth and were very receptive to the coalition's FTTN policy, given the delays and broken promises that this government has presided over. I commend the member for Wentworth for work he has done in developing a policy that will be rolled out faster and, importantly, will first meet the needs of the areas that need it most. The coalition is in favour of comprehensive high-speed broadband that can be delivered to all Australians, and that is the policy the member for Wentworth has produced. Certainly the residents and businesses we visited in the sixth Vic-01 trial site are fast coming to the conclusion that the only way to get change and action is to change the government.

I understand it is the government's intention to shortlist another area of Victoria Park next week. My suggestion to the government is to stop the spin and start delivering. There have been so many announcements of new areas, yet still no fibre has been laid for the first area announced in 2010. Stop the spin and start delivering—that is all the residents want, what they expected and what they were promised, but it is not happening. In Bentley the frustration was summarised in an email I received on Tuesday from one of the businesses in my electorate frustrated at the inability to connect to ADSL or to supposed broadband:

It is quite obvious that there is built up and widespread frustration in the community about the lack of average broadband services.

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The other unbelievable fact, and this is a great opportunity for someone in Parliament to bring it to the Governments attention, that a prime industrial area in the heart of an Australian capital city does NOT have access to proper broadband and, in some cases, has to send its employees off site to access suitable services!

So, Bill, I have mentioned that for you, and the residents of Victoria Park wait for the broadband to arrive. (Time expired)

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