John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about how the NBN is powering ahead in Calare. Not long ago I heard the member for Wannon make the point that, at the election, his electorate would not be on the radar until 2026. He is fortunate because Calare was not even mentioned. I just heard one of the opposition members talk about Australia and Australians—and I note they talk about Australians in the heading of their MPI. The people of Calare had every right to believe they were not Australians, because they were not mentioned.

The comprehensive three-year construction plan released last year was fantastic news for Calare. But as we were able to tell them very early on in this parliament, the priorities were wholly changed when we got into government. It was those who needed it, rather than the capital cities, that were going to be highlighted and dealt with as early as possible. The rollout will see 49,700 premises in Calare hooked up to the high-speed network. Under our government a number of towns in our region will now be connected up to the high-speed network much earlier than was expected even at the start of this rollout.

The fixed-line build commenced in my home town of Molong in December. In actual fact, when I went onto the fixed wireless on the fringe of Molong, I think I was the first federal member of parliament to go onto fixed line. The build is also now underway in Orange, with it expected to be switched on progressively midway through this year. A very high speed data firm in Orange contacted me recently. They work around the world. They have recently put 24 people on. They are putting another 16 on. They asked me to contact the NBN, and I was able tell them they are actually about 50 yards from where the line will, hopefully, be ready for them in August, and they are going to put their own line straight onto it. That will be their choice and it will cost them something, but Telstra were going to charge them $110,000 a year to be on NBN broadband. This is a godsend to them.

The rollout will then continue in Bathurst, Parkes, Blayney, Forbes and Oberon early next year, as well as in the Lithgow area. In this short year or so, Calare already has 40 fixed wireless towers operating successfully, including in places like Molong West, Oberon and Neville. Constituents Yvonne Furner and Rita Cobbe of Carcoar moved from Wyatt Roy's electorate of Longman in Queensland to the sunny pastures of Calare at the start of 2014. Despite assurances from their retail service provider that they would have ADSL2 connection at their new address, they were forced to rely on mostly unsatisfactory internet by the interim satellite. Yvonne and Rita spent 18 fruitless months on what they describe as a 'revolving roundabout' until I found out that they were able to get onto the fixed wireless NBN. Within three weeks of that they were connected to the wireless tower at Carcoar and they are enjoying, in their words, 21st century internet.

In just a couple more months the first of the two satellites, which between them will be able to handle 800,000 domiciles or contacts, will ensure people living in topographically challenging areas will not miss out and will receive extraordinarily good internet—chalk and cheese to the current satellite system, which is basically overloaded to blazes. It will be so much better than what we have had up until now, particularly in my electorate, because we obviously cannot put everybody on ground or even wireless. Funnily enough, it is not in the remote Far West that it is all going to be needed, although they obviously will have to use it as well. It is people just on the western side of the Great Dividing Range in places like Oberon, Lithgow and the like where the topography is very bad. Thank heaven there are two satellites. The first one has gone up, and it is an amazing story. It will look after those people.

Jeff Peak from Peak Connect, whose family owned company in Bathurst is thrilled to be a registered service provider for the NBN, said the NBN is a huge step forward for country people, and the way it had been reprioritised has been very good for us. (Time expired)

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