Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my support the iLoddon Mallee group and their call for this government to speed up the rollout of the NBN. NBN in my electorate is yet to be a reality for so many households and businesses. Margaret O'Rourke, one of the consultants for iLoddon Mallee, said on Friday that this timetable, from this government, was an absolute joke. It is too slow and it is taking too long to roll out fast-speed broadband to businesses and households in my electorate.

Worse still, we have discovered that the reason for the delay for so many households is because they have to replace copper. They have to replace copper from the node to the premises in large parts of regional Victoria. What an absolute joke! Rather than doing fibre to the premises, like Labor's original plan, this government has grabbed that plan and is now saying that in vast parts of central Victoria they going to have to replace that old, rusted, out-of-date copper with new copper.

They are not adopting Labor's plan of fibre to the premises. We are still waiting for a decent rollout plan of the NBN to central Victoria. We have been knocked off the map. If this government had stuck to Labor's plan, we would have a fast speed, reliable, fibre-to-the-premises network rolling out as I stand here today; but instead that plan has been scrapped and we are still left behind in the telecommunications void. (Time expired)

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