Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion brought to the House by the member for Robertson. The National Broadband Network is Australia's largest, most complex infrastructure project, reaching into every premises right across the country. It is the most expensive project ever undertaken, but it is also this because its distribution is by far the most complex.

This was a project whose origins were from a drinks coaster on the VIP: a great idea, but no plan for implementation. And we all know that if you do not plan, then you plan to fail. And that is exactly what happened with the implementation of the NBN.

This has been a story of a formidable turnaround. The NBN has done a remarkable job in getting this project back on track. At the time of the election it had missed every single target set for it, and by a very wide margin. It is good to say that the NBN is now meeting its targets. I would like to commend the minister for his work in getting the NBN back on track.

The NBN is now available to over 10 per cent of Australian premises, and by June 30 next year the NBN will be available to one in four Australian premises. By 2018, the NBN strives to have the service available to about three-quarters of Australian premises. This project is moving along very quickly.

In my seat of Lindsay more than 22,000 premises are already in service. Brownfield sites and new developments have worked to bring this together. There is work on a further 6,000 premises currently underway.

Already parts of Agnes Banks, Cambridge Gardens, Cambridge Park, Cranebrook, Jamisontown, Kingswood, Londonderry, Penrith, Penrith CBD, South Penrith, Llandilo and Werrington Downs are connected to the NBN. Emu Plains—where it was great to have the minister come out and visit in May—has become one of four suburbs across New South Wales and Queensland selected to take part in a construction pilot which is designed to speed up the rollout plan. This program takes place, and homes and businesses that already sit within the footprint of the hybrid fibre coaxial, or HFC, networks deployed by Optus and Telstra potentially can be included in the trial. Following commercial agreements signed last December, these networks will be progressively incorporated into the NBN and will be used to deliver fast and affordable broadband services to homes and businesses right across Australia and the Lindsay electorate.

Many Lindsay residents, when we announced this in May, agreed with Belinda Hill, who said, 'That's fantastic news for residents of Emu Plains. Well done, Fiona.' Jason Cooper stated, 'Good news.' Margaret Ware just said that it was great. Around 40 per cent of premises in Lindsay are currently passed by these HFC networks. Other premises will be connected to the NBN via other technologies, including multitechnology rollout. The NBN will be providing services of 100 megabits per second download when the HFC service is launched next year. By 2017 a technology upgrade will result in the HFC network operated by the NBN Co being capable of offering speeds of one gigabyte per second for download and 100 megabits per second for upload. These networks will be upgraded so they are among the most advanced in the world by 2017. Although the $30 billion differential is still there, NBN Co's conclusion is that, by the time the differential of the all-fibre approach is undertaken, it will take until 2026, and quite possibly 2028, to be completed.

This project under the current strategy will be completed by 2020. The political opponents of ours who say that we should go back to an all-fibre model are saying to the millions of Australians who want NBN and who want to see it sooner that, if they vote for Labor, they will wait for another six or eight years. Some of them will have to wait for more than a decade. Simply, that is not acceptable to us. We are determined to see the NBN. We are determined to see more Australians have access to very fast broadband as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. I commend again the member for Robertson for bringing this motion to the House.

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