Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015. If there ever has been a more poorly considered project I am yet to discover what it is. Labor's plan to deliver the NBN, which was developed on the back of a drinks coaster, has left this nation wondering, truly, they were up to. They were very good at delivering 'fibre to the press release' but, unfortunately, the connections that they made during their time in government left a lot of people wondering what it was all about. The notion that you can have what Labor promised was an absolute pipedream. It cannot be high quality, cheap and built quickly, at the same time. That is, effectively, what Labor promised. It is evidence of the complete inability of those on the other side to roll out what is one of the most complex and technically challenging projects that our nation has undertaken.

This is why when we came to government we recognised—like so many other jurisdictions around the world—a multimix technology. For a large country it, simply, is not feasible to deliver fibre to the premise. I know that in some of the communities in your electorate, Deputy Speaker, as in mine, it was simply inconceivable that they would be able to have fibre to the premise. So what we proposed was a multimix technology, similar to what is available in other parts of the world that are delivering the highest quality speeds, and in a way that allowed regional and rural areas of Australia to have access to fast and reliable broadband that had only previously been the privy those living in inner cities around Australia, and who already had quite reasonable ADSL coverage and speeds available to them. More's the pity for those communities that live in regional areas of Australia. They had been, effectively, left off the map by Labor. One of the things we did, on coming to government, was to prioritise those areas of the country that had little or no access to fast data. Across the nation 25 megabits down and five megabits up is the base package we are in the process of delivering.

In Tasmania—which is more advanced, it is true, in terms of the rollout of the NBN despite the hiccups that occurred under those opposite—it is quite interesting to look at the uptake of the speeds to those premises that do have access to fibre to the premise. It is quite interesting to look at those who are choosing more than the base package of 25 down and five megabits per second up. In fact, less than 10 per cent of those who have taken advantage of the connections have chosen the 100 megabit per second download and 40 upload speeds. That is, primarily, going to be businesses and they do, indeed, pay for that privilege. The vast majority—in fact, 86 per cent—of all of those who have connected to the fibre to the premise that is available around Tasmania have connected at 25 and five megabits or less.

It is quite interesting to note the trials that have recently been conducted in Queensland and, I am very pleased to say, in my electorate of Lyons. The townships of Evandale, Western Junction and Breadalbane will be very soon connected to fibre-to-the-node connections. I note that the trials that have been completed, recently, in Queensland highlight speeds that are extraordinary. They will provide speeds quite comparable to what is available to fibre-to-the-premise users. So it is that around the world this has been the experience previously, but those on the other side knew better.

In the electorate of Lyons, which is a diverse rural and regional electorate, we also have large areas which, again—despite what you hear from those opposite, Deputy Speaker—were never going to get connected by fibre to the premise. Large areas of my electorate are able to access very good speeds on the wireless service. In fact, there are, in the electorate of Lyons, 17,523 premises that can access the NBN via the wireless service, albeit there are about 2,000 of that 17½ thousand still in build. But of those able to connect via those wireless services, there are only around 4½ thousand people who have chosen to connect to available NBN, in some cases, since the middle of June 2013. I look, for example, at the New Norfolk tower that covers 432 premises, where the activation take-up rate is only 34 per cent. There are some that are better than others. For example, at Lyell, down in the Derwent Valley, there are 133 premises, of which only 23 have connected—17 per cent. Some, of course, are higher than that. Forty one per cent of 444 connections on the Mt Direction tower have connected.

The message from the people of Lyons is that, overwhelmingly, the wireless connections have proved to be a very simple way of being able to connect to the NBN. It has been quite a seamless process. It certainly has not involved the digging up of backyards, as has been the case in many of those communities—and a number of them were in my electorate—that were part of that early rollout under the former government: Deloraine, Midway Point, parts of Sorell, St Helens and Triabunna. The stories that we have had—of backyards being dug up, of people making appointments and the appointments being cancelled—just show the complexity of the build in that area, particularly in the remote and regional areas.

This is why I am so pleased. I had the opportunity with the staff from nbn co to go out and inspect the first of the nodes that has been constructed in the township of Evandale, just outside Launceston. There are expected to be 800 premises between Western Junction and Evandale that will be connected, by May of this year, to the fibre-to-the-node technology, which is delivering—albeit for a price. Those that wish to pay a higher price will be able to access speeds that, on some of the trials, have been approaching 100 download and 40 upload. These are the sorts of speeds that are available on fibre to the premises, and they are similarly available on fibre to the node. Of course, most households will not choose those speeds, because a 25 down and five up service allows you to, for example, in most households stream—on Netflix, iview or SBS On Demand—up to five or six services at the one time. The social costs that that brings in a family are for others to judge, but nevertheless the technology of that speed allows more than most households will require.

There is a lot of noise in this space. If small businesses want faster speeds than those described, they will be available and they will pay for them. But the truth of it is, in most areas in my electorate, the speeds are available through wireless, through fibre to the node and, from the middle of this year, the satellite services. Many of the more remote areas of my electorate will be able to access the NBN through the two Sky Muster satellites that have been launched and will be coming on line in the middle of the year for the first time. They will be able to access fast broadband speeds that simply would have been a dream under those opposite.

This is good news overwhelmingly for the people of my electorate. As I mentioned, there are a number of communities there that have access to fibre to the premise. Increasingly we will see the rollout expanded very quickly—in Evandale, Exeter, Lanena and the communities down the West Tamar. Places that will soon be able to access fibre-to-the-node services include Gravelly Beach, Rosevears, Swan Point, Blackwall and Westbury and Hagley. I note the disappointment of the Meander Valley Council. They recently had a report produced which cost them, I understand, somewhat over $10,000. The request for the report was passed by the council, at the instigation of one of the councillors. They were disappointed with the information that was provided. It is a question for the ratepayers of the Meander Valley as to whether that was money well spent by their council, because they also very soon, in Westbury and Hagley, will have 1,100 premises or thereabouts able to access, through fibre-to-the-node technology, some of the fastest speeds that are available on the NBN.

But I go back to my original point. Of those premises that have had access to NBN for a large period of time—in some cases since the middle of 2014—86 per cent of those retail customers are choosing speeds of 25, five or lower, because they are able to do everything that they need to do with those sorts of speeds. For business, of course, it will be slightly different, and those faster speeds are going to be available through the mix of technologies that are being rolled out around the electorate of Lyons as we speak.

Overwhelmingly, it is a good story as far as the rollout of the NBN in my electorate is concerned. I am very pleased to see now that there are communities where we have almost completed the wireless rollout. There are only now 4,000 premises that are still in a build phase. The Coles Bay east tower had struck a planning hurdle, with the tower being located in the national park at Coles Bay. That has been overcome now, so in the tourist town of Coles Bay, Freycinet—some of you might know it, on the east coast of Tasmania, a very lovely part of our state in my electorate—tourist operators will now be able to offer, to the increasing numbers of mainland and international tourists that are coming to Tasmania to enjoy what we have to offer, speeds that they expect. So they are very happy about that.

The fibre-to-the node rollout is commencing, as I mentioned, in those towns. Evandale and along the West Tamar will be the first. Not long after that, you will see fibre to the node being rolled out in Westbury and Hagley in the Meander Valley; Bicheno on the east coast; Campbell Town; Dodges Ferry in the south-east, a growing area of my electorate; Exeter, as I mentioned; Longford, one of the major towns in the Northern Midlands; and New Norfolk, a large town. It will be a simple process. As I say, people will not have to have their backyards dug up. Certainly in the township of Evandale, where there are a lot of heritage houses, that is the last thing that they need. The simplicity of being able to connect to the NBN and access very fast speeds through fibre to the node is indeed welcomed by the overwhelming majority of the people in my electorate who previously have not had access to data connections at anywhere approaching these speeds. Regional Australia finally is being considered and has been a priority for the rollout under this current government. I thank the House for the opportunity to contribute on this debate.

See this speech in context