Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to grieve about the absolute duplicity and dishonesty of this government and in particular the communications minister with regard to the National Broadband Network long-term satellite service. The NBN satellites comprise one part of NBN's delivery infrastructure; the other two being the fixed line network and the fixed wireless network. These long-term KA-band NBN satellites will replace the interim NBN satellite service. The former Labor government announced in February 2012 that it would build these satellites to provide high-speed broadband to regional and remote Australia with a launch date due for 2015. The reason Labor embarked on constructing these long-term satellites was because we believe that all Australians, regardless of where they live, deserve quality broadband, which was not provided during the Howard years.

The massive take-up of broadband services on the interim satellite service reflected how poorly served remote Australia was during the Howard years when regional communities were left with a substandard service via the Australian Broadband Guarantee. This was one of the many utter failures of the Howard government when it came to communications infrastructure throughout Australia. It is for these reasons that Labor launched the interim satellite service and announce the construction and launch of the long-term satellite service. This journey took another step forward last Thursday when the Minister for Communications announced the specific launch date for the first of these satellites, saying:

Blasting off from French Guiana on 1 October 2015, the launch date is a huge step forward for those living in regional and remote Australia, with more than 200,000 homes and businesses set to be covered.

The nbn long term satellite service will be a game changer for those living in the bush and will help bridge the digital divide currently experienced by many.

The minister's description of the long-term satellite service as a game-changer which will be a huge step forward for those living in regional and remote Australia came as somewhat of a surprise to me. That is because the member for Wentworth, when was the shadow minister for communications and was on a crusade to demolish the NBN, condemned these satellites as a 'Rolls Royce solution' and as 'wasteful spending'. What was then wasteful spending is now a game changer for regional and remote Australia. The inconsistency is breathtaking.

But the Minister's contempt for the long term satellite service did not stop there. In 2012, the member for Wentworth argued that the NBN Co should be renting capacity on existing satellites, rather than building and launching its own satellites. He said, 'There is enough capacity on private satellites already in orbit or scheduled for launch for the NBN to deliver broadband to the 200,000 or so premises in remote Australia, without building its own.' He also said at the time, 'Once again the NBN is investing more than it is needed to achieve its mission.' And he was not done there, tweeting on 7 February 2012, 'Why buy when you can rent?'

But as we all know, he was wrong about existing capacity being sufficient to provide broadband, and you do not need to take my word for it. Optus contradicted the minister on this at the time, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, on 13 February 2012, we see the example of what I call 'the Turnbull triumvirate', where he criticises, then he takes credit, and then he blames everybody else. Have a look at Lucy Battersby's story, 'NBN satellite stoush: Malcolm Turnbull wrong, says Optus':

Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan has defended NBN Co's decision to construct and launch its own satellites, saying his company would not be able to provide the same quality of broadband service on its existing commercial satellites.

The satellites which NBN Co is building are specifically built to carry broadband traffic, while Optus's satellites are designed to carry television and video services, O'Sullivan explained. Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull last week criticised NBN Co for building new machinery instead of buying capacity on existing services. When these two NBN satellites are launched, there will be huge spare capacity on them.

Once again, the NBN is investing more than is needed to achieve its mission. Once again, the incentive will be for this giant new Government monopoly to intrude into other markets, and undermine existing private sector providers.

The article continues, and this is instructive:

However Mr O'Sullivan said NBN Co had made the right decision because of technical differences between different satellite types.

Part of the issue around this debate is that there are fundamental differences in satellite between the Ku band, which we use, and the Ka band, which is increasingly used internationally for broadband services.

The reason I want to go into detail on that point has to do with the article 'NBN rebuffs slow net anxieties', which appeared in The Australian on 3 August. We have NBN Chief Customer Officer, John Simon, saying, in relation to these two different bands, that they are 'like comparing apples with lemons'. He said:

The interim service involves leasing bandwidth from other providers to deliver a temporary service to around 32, 000 customers. By contrast, the long-term service will see two dedicated satellites launched into space purely to serve the needs of broadband users in the bush. Mr Simon described the long-term service as 'a real game-changer' for rural and remote customers.

The article goes on to say:

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull also sought to distinguish between the interim and long-term services, blaming in a blog post to appear on his website today the previous Labor government.

Of course he did. He is probably writing one right now. I also refer to the satellite scheduled for launch that was referred to by the member for Wentworth at the time, which was NewSat's Jabiru. NewSat has since gone into liquidation, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported in April this year:

NBN Co's former chief executive has defended the decision to build its own satellites as the much touted private-sector alternative, Melbourne-based NewSat, files for bankruptcy and heads into voluntary administration amid allegations of mismanagement and mis-spending. NewSat was repeatedly mentioned as a private-sector solution for NBN Co's satellite services for several years by its chief executive … and even by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who described the company as 'pretty capable'.

What an eye to future from this minister. We saw this lack of vision, this lack of forward planning, in the minister's much criticised cost benefit analysis of the NBN. It just reflects what an eye to the future this minister does not have.

We know from the cost-benefit analysis, which somehow concluded that Australia's bandwidth needs will actually decrease over time, that according to the minister in 2023, in less than 10 years' time, the bandwidth requirements of a median household will be 15 megabits per second. As the CEO of the Singapore telco MyRepublic, Malcolm Rodrigues, said last week to the AFR:

I don't know what [the government] is doing on the other policy fronts but on this—

that is, their management of the NBN—

they've completely stuffed it … More and more Australians will leave the country looking for jobs and you'll continue to be a resource based economy—the hope of building IT jobs and a digital economy will kind of be more difficult to achieve.

Fortunately, the contracts for the build and launch of these satellites had been finalised, and this government was not able to tear them up.

Labor's new satellites will transform health and education delivery for the bush, and improve the way businesses do business. Labor understands that broadband is an essential utility, like electricity or water. That is why we commissioned these satellites: to give people in remote areas the benefits of broadband. We have been completely consistent on the need for these satellites, and on the need for a national broadband network that will deliver fast, reliable and affordable broadband no matter where Australians live or do business. Unfortunately, this Minister for Communications has not been so consistent.

I would also like to note, talking about inconsistency, that this minister waxed lyrical about transparency, but he has also been caught removing some of his more critical NBN satellite posts on this very issue from his website. Try doing a search for this entry from 8 February 2012, 'Satellite deal—more wasteful NBN spending'. Try to find this on the minister's website, like I did recently; it appears to have been removed. But, as the minister is finding out, the internet never forgets, and this post has been archived for all of us to see. We know that delivering the NBN is critical to people and to businesses, irrespective of where people live or work. You only need to look at the 2011-12 regional telecommunications review on the issue of satellite technologies, which said:

The strong initial uptake of the ISS clearly demonstrates the pent-up demand for better broadband.

This is what Labor was left with—an incredibly huge amount of pent-up demand. Finding 4.5 said:

The NBN Interim Satellite Service … offers an immediate improvement in high-speed broadband availability to people and businesses in regional Australia.

This was the legacy left by a Howard government with no foresight whatsoever to do anything about improving broadband in regional and remote areas. We know that John Howard was at least consistent on being stuck in the past; unfortunately, his communications minister's inconsistency is— (Time expired)

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