Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start my contribution to today's debate on the National Broadband Network with a quote from one of the co-founders of Australia's most successful software company, Atlassian. Yesterday, on Channel 9's Financial Review Sunday program, Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes said:

The biggest problem the government has at the moment is that it doesn't understand technology broadly.

That pretty much sums it up. I was amazed that this private members' business was brought to the House, considering how viciously this government is tearing apart the National Broadband Network. The Abbott government is systematically destroying the world-class network that was going to be built under Labor and is replacing it with a hotchpotch of different networks at a slower timetable than promised and at much lower speeds.

In particular, I find it astonishing that their strategic review of the NBN is being waved around as a showcase in this debate. The Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network tabled its first report in March this year and was scathing of the strategic review and the processes that the government is undertaking in its rollout. In essence, the interim report found that the assumptions of the strategic review are flawed and unreliable, and that the government should direct NBN Co to accelerate the fibre-to-the-premises rollout, not stop it.

I would now like to concentrate on the second point made by the Senate select committee about accelerating the fibre-to-the-premises rollout, not stopping it. Labor's National Broadband Network was to deliver superfast broadband to the front door of 93 per cent of all Australians, about 70 per cent more than what will be delivered by this government.

My electorate of Newcastle was due to have 100 per cent of coverage with fibre to all premises by the end of 2016—superfast access that would connect them to the rest of the country and the world. Every home, school, hospital, health clinic and business was set to be connected. Businesses made decisions to locate themselves, based on the availability of the NBN and were making long-term plans to move operations into Newcastle. Construction on the network commenced in the suburb of Mayfield last year. Planned works and interchange upgrades were underway or completed in New Lambton and Hamilton.

Some residents in Thornton, Stockton and Beresfield were to benefit from broadband access for the first time. That is right: there are still places in Newcastle, a major regional economic hub, that have no broadband access whatsoever. My entire electorate now sits on a scrap heap of broken promises of this government, completely removed from the rollout schedule altogether. They have no idea of when they will receive the NBN or what level of service they will actually receive. Business plans are in disarray, with small and large enterprises heading back down the freeway to the Central Coast and Sydney, to access the big pipe of superfast broadband.

Last week I was surprised to hear some good broadband news for the region, with rumours that the NBN was back on and that there would be a fibre-rollout announcement. I thought maybe they might restart the work at Mayfield and that maybe the people of Thornton or Stockton were going to get broadband for the very first time. I was, however, left disappointed with the detail when the announcement came out. Do not get me wrong: I am happy for the residents who are going to get the NBN close to Newcastle, but I am obviously disappointed to read that it was not coming to my constituents or businesses in my electorate but was to be rolled out in East Maitland just outside my electorate in the Liberal held seat of Paterson.

One of the listed fundamentals of NBN Co's rollout is the prioritisation of construction of the NBN in communities in regional and rural Australia, with limited or no current access to broadband. Based on this fundamental and the announcement of the construction commencing in East Maitland, I naturally assumed that they were in the same boat as Thornton, about five kilometres away, with no broadband access at all. Research, however, shows that this was not the case. Using the Department of Communications MyBroadband checker, I got a quick insight into broadband availability and quality in East Maitland and nearby Thornton. According to the checker, the residents of East Maitland already have high levels of access to ADSL. Unfortunately, when I checked for Thornton it was still very much the case. The ratings, quite aptly given the situation there, came up as D, E, D, the lowest rankings possible on all measures.

No more broken promises from this government, please, no more wrong priorities, no more out-of-date antiquated technologies, no more copper—we want a modern Australia. We deserve much more. (Time expired)

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