Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister of this country wants us to think he is some kind of technology guru at the same time as he builds an NBN out of old 2c coins. When you go to the detail of his second-rate NBN, as the member for Blaxland did a moment ago, you see it is half as good for twice the cost. For many people in my community, the Prime Minister's stewardship of that portfolio has meant a much longer wait. They said it would be faster and cheaper and finished by 2016, and all those promises have turned to dust.

In different circumstances people in my community would have welcomed the announcement on Friday that there were some suburbs from my area added to the list, but my community knows better. They are not mugs. They have been let down before. They were told before the election that everyone would have it by the end of 2016. Now they have a much longer wait. They were told that two-thirds of the 58,000 homes in my electorate would be connected; two-thirds of those 58,000 were wiped off the map.

Many of them see this new plan, as we do, as a plan for the election and not a plan for the construction of a first-rate NBN. After all the delays and all the disappointments, we are now supposed to believe that they will connect more than half the country in just two years, but only if it starts after the election. We had a forum in my community with the member for Blaxland. We heard lots of concern from people who just want one thing from this government—a first-rate, first-class NBN for my community, like you promised.

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