Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have news for the member for Wannon. He will be extremely disappointed when the NBN starts rolling out in his electorate. The rollout of Malcolm Turnbull's fibre-to-the-node NBN in Shortland electorate has been an abject failure. The contribution by the member for Wannon shows that he really does not understand what is happening. The people of Shortland electorate waited with great anticipation and expectation for the NBN to be rolled out in our area—there was great excitement in the community.

Many of my constituents rushed off very quickly to connect the NBN, only to be devastated by a litany of disasters. I hate to say this, but my electorate office has become an NBN complaints office. I will share some of those complaints with the House this afternoon. Among the disasters that I mentioned are: services disconnected; a failure to reconnect them; no service whatsoever; and poor communication between NBN and the providers. And it is not just one provider—it does not matter which provider it is, there is a problem, whether it is Telstra, Optus, Westnet, Dodo or TPG. All the constituents in Shortland are having problems with their provider and NBN; it is not a provider problem; it is an NBN problem. Be really aware of it—it is not a provider problem; it is an NBN problem. It is not one provider; it is all providers because the NBN is not delivering.

Now I will share my first example with you. This is Jess. She has had five appointments rescheduled just to connect to the NBN—that is a technician. This is what she had to say: 'When the technician came today, he said, "You have got no connection, no phone line connection." He came back and had another look and he finally found it.' At 12 o'clock today she finally was connected to the NBN; that has taken since 5 January to connect.

This has been a disaster. The cost blow-out has been highlighted, as has the failure to deliver NBN. Then there is the service and the speed and, of course, the broken promises that Prime Minister Turnbull made to the Australian people. The one thing the people in the Shortland electorate have learnt is that you cannot trust the Turnbull government. The Turnbull government is absolutely no different from the Abbott government. They have failed the people of Shortland and, I am sure, people throughout Australia when it comes to the NBN.

I promised I would share a few examples with you. Bruce and Rita had problems with their NBN and Optus. They have had no service since 1 February. They cannot receive phone calls and they cannot dial out. They are having enormous problems.

And then there is Jerry, from Ballantyne. He works from home. He is a director. He switched from ADSL2 and he was getting 14 mps. But listen to this. He is now receiving as little as four or five mps. It is an absolute disgrace. And it is a broken promise to the people of Australia. Why should a director like Jerry have his business put in jeopardy because this government fails to deliver what it promised?

And then there is a Phillip, who says he is no tech guru. On 12 January he signed up with ISP Westnet. It took four days to get the internet working and he is still without a landline as of 5 February.

And the list goes on and on and on. This government promised the people of Shortland electorate that they were going to get a fast broadband connection. But they have not received it. This government have tricked the people of Shortland and they are tricking the people of Australia. To Karen, Deirdre, Edward, Ian, Des, Maxwell Taylor, whom the shadow minister spoke about, David and Belmont meals on wheels—even Belmont meals on wheels!—I am sorry that this government is so inept at delivering what they promised. You deserve decent fast speed broadband and Malcolm Turnbull— (Time expired)

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