Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Changes made to the telecommunications legislation in this bill perfectly represent the chaos and dysfunction of this government. What a complete mess this government has made of the rollout of the National Broadband Network across Australia. It is probably one of the biggest and most important infrastructure projects of recent decades, and all this government has done is seek to score political points in the manner in which they have changed the project and introduced a new regime.

This bill, in its original form, was introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 December 2015. What it does is codify many of the recommendations of a review that was established by the former Minister for Communications, who is now the Prime Minister. When they were in opposition the current government promised an independent review of the operation of the National Broadband Network and its future. Well, we did not get that independent review. What we got was a partisan review. The Vertigan panel, as it has become known, was appointed with former Liberal Party staffers. They are the people they appointed to this review to look at the National Broadband Network, and all of them have been critics of Labor's approach to the National Broadband Network in the past.

Unsurprisingly, the Vertigan review recommended the rollback of a number of Labor's competition and consumer friendly reforms that underpin the National Broadband Network. The important principle of universal access to telecommunications throughout the whole of Australia was at threat because of the recommendations made by the Vertigan panel. One of those recommendations was to axe the universal national wholesale pricing regime. This regime ensures that Australians who live in rural and regional areas pay the same wholesale price as people who live in the big cities for the equivalent services. This is a principle that Labor put in place to ensure that we had fairness and equity in telecommunication service delivery in this country.

We all know that Australia is a very big nation, and the tyranny of distance has been a challenge for people who live in rural and regional communities when it comes to accessing government services. So Labor put in place the universal national wholesale pricing regime to ensure that, regardless of where you live in Australia, you pay the same wholesale price to access what are now vitally important and essential telecommunication services. The Vertigan review recommended watering that down. The question I have is: where is the National Party on an issue such as this? Where is the National Party when it comes to such an important government service as telecommunications and the prospect of having the universal national wholesale pricing regime undermined?

The Vertigan review was clearly biased. It was clearly put in place for political means, not to find out what is in the best interest of the nation or how we will get world-class telecommunication services. That is ultimately what is behind the National Broadband Network that Labor put in place: we want world-class telecommunication services. Other nations throughout the world are receiving speeds of up to 100 megabits per second when it comes to accessing the internet. Not many houses or business premises in Australia are able to access those speeds, and that was why we built and intended to build a fibre-optic cable to the premises network. That is what the rest of the world is doing. That is what a modern telecommunication system looks like, not the one that this government has sought to introduce for purely political means—purely to say that their version was cheaper than Labor's and would be rolled out more quickly. In the end, what they have done is give us a half-baked NBN. It is an inferior system. It is a second-rate system for our nation. That is unacceptable in modern-day Australia. A wealthy nation like Australia, with the government services that we have, should not put up with a second-rate system. That is why Labor has been critical of what this government is doing with the National Broadband Network.

But it is not just the Labor Party that is critical. There has been much independent analysis of what this government has been doing on the National Broadband Network, the recommendation of the Vertigan review, the amendments that are made through this bill and the effects that they are having on the delivery of the National Broadband Network. I will quote some of them for you because I think they perfectly highlight what this government is up to when it comes to the National Broadband Network. If anyone knows anything about accessing telecommunication services and ensuring competition and fair access, it is the former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Professor Graeme Samuel. He said:

Multiple reviews, at vast cost, have been completed, primarily focused on demonstrating that the Labor government’s NBN concept was flawed or at least was less economically viable than that of the Coalition. Unfortunately, much of the review analysis has had a political tarnish which diminishes its value in forward planning for this important infrastructure project.

I could not have summed it up better. Professor Graeme Samuel has hit the nail on the head. With this government it is all about political point-scoring rather than delivering a first rate National Broadband Network and doing what is in the interests of Australians across the whole of the nation.

The Senate select committee that had a look at the review of the National Broadband Network—the so-called independent cost-benefit analysis that was part of the Vertigan panel's review—had this to say about it:

The Cost-Benefit Analysis is a deeply flawed and overtly political document. It is not credible and is not a reliable basis upon which to make decisions about the NBN.

That is what the Senate committee said about the Vertigan panel. But what does this government do? They are amending the telecommunications legislation based on what is a deeply flawed and clearly biased political report. Unfortunately, all Australians will suffer because of this.

Labor indicated that they would oppose those elements of the bill that are flawed and that come from this clearly biased and politically motivated review. They include parts 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the telecommunications legislation. So we indicated to the government that we would not support those parts of the bill. What does the government do? At the last minute, they withdraw those parts of the bill. They are amending their own legislation and withdrawing those parts of the bill, because they have worked out that they are deeply offensive, come from a politically biased report and are not in the best interests of Australia.

The way this government is developing policy on one of the most important infrastructure projects in our nation's history is: they are making it up as they go. As we have seen in a number of policy areas—tax reform, competition policy, other important economic principles—they are making these policies up as they go, because they do not have a clear plan and an economic vision for our nation.

In this policy area and in a number of other areas, the Australian people are suffering from the constant changes that are occurring—ministers being replaced, leaderships ballots, people having to resign because they have done the wrong thing as ministers and a revolving door of ministerial appointments are all having an effect on good government in this country.

We all know that these are big portfolios, particularly telecommunications, and it takes a long time for a new minister to get across the issues and meet with all the players and stakeholders who operate in that area. Clearly, the government is suffering from this. At the last minute, the government is seeking to amend its own legislation, because it has worked out that it is flawed and that the Australian people are suffering. This is symbolic of this government's approach to the National Broadband Network and policy development more generally.

As I mentioned earlier, these reviews are aimed at political pointscoring and trying to blame the Labor Party rather than having good policy, and the people of Australia have been suffering. We are going to be saddled with a second-rate national broadband network. Every other broadband network in developed nations is delivering fibre optic cable to the premises. Why? Because that is the latest and most up-to-date technology. Nations across the whole of Europe and much of the United States are delivering the best technology for their citizens. Why wouldn't Australia do the same thing? Under the original plan of the previous Labor government, we were doing that. Sure, there were some teething problems in the early days—there always are with big infrastructure projects; we all know that—but, at the end of the day, you are better off, if you have an up-to-date system that delivers first-class and world-class communications technology for its citizens. This government has sought to score political points by trying to blame Labor and introducing an inferior system so that they can say that it is cheaper than the Labor Party's. It is infuriating because, instead of getting fibre to the home and fibre to the business—fibre optic cable, the latest technology—you get fibre optic cable to the end of the street and then the information runs down the old copper network.

The copper network was installed before the first man walked on the moon—that is how old it is. It goes back to before the 1960s. So here we have first-rate technology delivering information to the node and then slow as a wet week down the copper network to the home. Naturally, we are seeing the consequences of that and some of the testimonials from people who have connected to this new system are quite shocking, because guess what? At the end of the day, when everyone goes home and gets on the internet, it slows down; it is using outdated technology. Australians are suffering. We have had testimonials from people who have been connected, saying, 'Bring back my ADSL2 connection, because what they've given us is inferior even to that old technology.'

In a number of areas, we have seen that the government is not meeting the targets it set for itself. Malcolm Turnbull, the now Prime Minister, when he was the communications minister, said that the second-rate NBN would only cost $41 billion. Two years on in the progress reports that have been released on the delivery of the NBN, we see that the second-rate NBN will actually cost up to $56 billion—a 37 per cent increase in the cost.

The Prime Minister said previously that the cost to connect fibre to the node to the home would cost about $600; it is actually costing $1,600—a 167 per cent increase. This is something that Labor said would be an issue. Under our system, we had a reasonable price to connect. Everyone had the same access; there may have been differences in plans and the like, but there was competition and people could make their own choices. We said that you would pay more to connect to lousy, inferior technology, and that is exactly what is occurring.

The Prime Minister said that it would cost $55 million to fix up the copper network: it is actually costing $641 million. I have had a number of Telstra technicians, living in my electorate, come to me, saying that they could not believe that they were actually using the rusty old, outdated copper network to connect people to the National Broadband Network—it is almost criminal to call it the National Broadband Network, given that people are being connected through this second-rate technology.

With all the changes in minsters in this area, a new Prime Minister and these partisan reviews that have been conducted, which are clearly trying to score points against the Labor Party, we have seen an inferior national broadband network developed for this country. The people of Australia are suffering. In my community, in the electorate of Kingsford Smith, under Labor's plan we would have been receiving the National Broadband Network now. Fibre to the premises was being rolled out from July 2015 from Kensington and gradually making its way east and south across the whole of the electorate. When the Liberals came to government, they stopped the rollout of the National Broadband Network in our community; they took us off the rollout map.

The people of my community have suffered ever since. We have got a handful of brand-new unit developments that have the National Broadband Network and that is it. No-one else is getting the fibre-to-the-home or business National Broadband Network that they are rightly entitled to and should expect from a modern-day Australian government. What is being delivered is an inferior system. People in areas and communities like mine have been taken off the rollout map, and it is clearly not good enough. The changes that are being made to this bill at the last minute reflect the fact that this government is completely ballsing up the National Broadband Network rollout, and that chaos and dysfunction are affecting the policy development of this government.

Debate adjourned.

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