Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Two years ago this week, on 3 March 2014 I rose in this place and said that Mr Abbott and the Liberals were pulling the plug on the National Broadband Network fibre rollout in my electorate. Well, the result of this decision has been enormous. We have become an electorate of the haves and have-nots. We have already seen people being forced to move away from the electorate purely because they cannot get access to high-speed broadband. Children in my communities do not have access to educational resources and businesses do not have the same connectivity to customers and wholesalers alike.

Two years later, we have a new Prime Minister and a new Minister for Communications. Two years later we are told there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. I can tell you, two years later there has never been a worse time to be a resident of McEwen, whose hopes were pinned on receiving fast and affordable broadband under the failure that is the Abbott Turnbull government. In suburbs like Mernda and Doreen, there has never been a worse time for a kid studying for a VCE. In places like Sunbury, there has never been a worse time for local businesses trying to compete on the global stage. Why? Because Mr 'There has never been a more exciting time' was the communications minister for two years and is now the Prime Minister. Basically, his only job for two years was to get the NBN right, but it was two years of mismanagement and neglect, two years of spending more time scheming to wrestle the job from the member for Warringah than doing his own job. As we know, with Malcolm it is all about Malcolm.

What does the Prime Minister have to show for his two years of effort? The NBN that Mr Turnbull has left behind is an absolute mess and this bill will go nowhere to actually fixing it. The Prime Minister promised that his second-rate version of the NBN would be rolled out faster and cheaper. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cost of his NBN has just doubled from $29.5 billion to $56 billion. He promised that it would be rolled out to all Australians by the end of 2016. Now that has more than doubled to seven years.

We are told that this bill will enhance the regulatory framework for telecommunications, implementing in part the government's response to the Vertigan panel. Let us have a look at the Vertigan panel and what has been said about its work. The Senate Selection Committee on the NBN put the Vertigan panel's independent cost-benefit analysis under the microscope in 2015 and what they found was concerning, including fatal shortcomings in the analysis. These included the absurdly pessimistic quantification of technical household demand: 15 megabytes per second by 2023. That relied on a study conducted by firm known for its uniquely pessimistic view of broadband demand rather than demand forecasts from reputable firms like CISCO.

The select committee also said, 'Incredibly, the panel inflated nbn co's fibre-operating expenditure assumptions by 180 per cent compared to only 12 per cent for the Malcolm Turnbull mess, despite the low operating costs of fibre compared to legacy technologies.' But the select committee was not alone when it examined the credibility of the report. Telecommunications analyst Chris Coughlan observed that:

It is clear that in commissioning the National Broadband Network reviews the government has carefully selected consultants, analysts and economists that have previously expressed views that support their position.

IBRS analyst Guy Cranswick did not hold back when he described the cost-benefit analysis as 'politically stacked' and the panel of experts as 'full of acolytes and sympathisers' with the coalition government. Professor Graeme Samuel, former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, observed:

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.

The select committee concluded:

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.

Since the select committee conducted its analysis of the Vertigan panel's cost-benefit analysis, developments have borne out its conclusion.

The Vertigan panel based its cost assumptions for the government's NBN on the cost models developed by nbn co for the 2013 strategic review. These cost models have proven to be hopelessly wrong, as the cost of the government's second-rate NBN has blown out from the $41 billion assumed in the December 2013 strategic review to the up to $56 billion assumed in nbn co's August 2015 Corporate Plan 2016. Malcolm Turnbull's assumptions in the strategic review are not even close. When he released the strategic review, he said it was 'the most thorough and objective analysis of the NBN ever provided to Australians.' He also said:

Importantly, all forecasts in the Strategic Review have been arrived at independently by NBN Co and, in the view of the company and its expert advisors, are both conservative and achievable.

We know this Prime Minister likes to talk—he will not give you a three-word slogan, but he will punish you with a 5,000 word essay—but, when it comes to action, he has a problem: he cannot walk the talk.

We know that this bill is on some very, very rocky foundations—foundations built when this Prime Minister was in charge of the NBN. Let us look at the foundations he put down in the electorate of McEwen. Labor had a plan for McEwen—a firm plan for our local communities to receive fast and affordable broadband. Under Labor, places like Mernda and Doreen would have had the NBN by now. Under Malcolm Turnbull, it is supposedly being started in 2017. So people in my communities—the fastest growing communities in Australia—do not have access to broadband, and it is because of the failure of this government. Under Labor, Sunbury would have finished construction of the NBN by 2016. Under Malcolm Turnbull they are supposedly starting construction in 2016. And let's remember that, at the last election, their candidate went out and said, 'The NBN is fine. We do not need faster-speed broadband; it is acceptable.'

They are just a couple of communities. These delays are not just shifting dates on paper; they affect real people and their lives. They affect schoolkids and businesses. They make us a community of have-nots. Take for instance Barbara Marshall, an international design consultant who, with her husband Alan, provides multimedia, digital and animation design services. She said that they made a 'conscious decision' to work from their Doreen home to avoid the long travel into the city, but that:

As the industry technology norms have changed to delivery of large files via Internet, we are struggling to service our clients' expectations. With a maximum of wireless 15 gig a month from Telstra our only option, it makes our business uncompetitive. The limit on the availability of high speed broadband is directly affecting our productivity and our ability to employ more young designers.

Or take, for example, ecoMaster, a family-owned business that was in Gisborne which designs, produces and distributes customised thermal solutions for houses and businesses across the country. ecoMaster owners Lyn and Maurice heavily rely on the internet to run their business. But, with constant interruptions and slow speeds of their then internet service, it became almost impossible to conduct business in the local area. Lyn said:

We would love to continue running our business here in Gisborne, but with the NBN rollout not continuing through to this region, it may just be that we have to move our business to Melbourne.

Unfortunately for the people of Gisborne, they did move to Melbourne, which means a loss of jobs for the employees.

We have waited so long for the NBN to be delivered to our communities, that one council, the City of Whittlesea, was so sick and tired of this government and their inferior NBN and slow rollout that they have gone it alone. For Mernda and Laurimar, suburbs with around 20,000 young residents, work will not start on the NBN until at least 2017 and, if you can believe the Wentworth waffler, he says that it will be there by 2018. That is not the case. They are already three years behind, and the delay will just keep growing and growing. Most residents cannot even access ADSL. A few pockets of new builds have NBN, but most of the area just struggle.

In 2010 the City of Whittlesea spent hundreds of thousands in infrastructure, making sure the suburbs were NBN ready so they could be close to first in the rollout—and, under Labor, they were; South Morang was one of the first places to get fibre optic cable direct to the home—but, since the election, they have been put to the bottom of the list. Whittlesea invited companies to make use of council's underground service conduits, allowing companies to run their high-speed internet cabling to reach homes not connected to the NBN. Even the former Liberal Mayor of Whittlesea could not support the Abbott-Turnbull government's dud rollout plan, and he said, 'Council is committed to ensuring our community gains access to high-speed internet, which is so essential for our residents and businesses to make the most of the digital age.'

Redtrain Networks were the successful carrier from an EOI process to be provided the opportunity to access council's conduit and bring an additional broadband option local residents not currently served with high-speed broadband. This network offers fibre to the premises and services up to one gigabit per second. They started building their network in about March 2015 and have been identifying customers who did not want to wait the three-plus years for the NBN technology to be deployed. The Whittlesea council rollout for fibre to the premise will be underway in the next few months. Whittlesea council have been forced to deliver a proper NBN service for its residents and will roll it out quicker than Malcolm Turnbull ever could.

Mr Turnbull promised us a faster and cheaper NBN which would be rolled out to all homes and businesses by the end of 2016. Even with the unrealistic revised proposals, we will not see work begin until two years later. When it will reach its completion is anyone's guess.

Talking about local issues, this bill attempts to reflect the government's policy of axing universal national wholesale pricing and replacing it with wholesale price caps. Universal national wholesale pricing is a reform introduced by the former Labor government. What it means is that people living in rural and regional areas will not be penalised and will pay the same wholesale price that people in the cities pay for equivalent services. You would have thought that would be something the National Party would have supported. But, as usual, when it comes to Canberra the National Party are silent. They do not support rural and regional broadband and users getting the same pricing as those in the city. It says a lot about the National Party and why they lost party status in Victoria.

Axing this reform means that all Australians will be paying more for essential communication services. Labor does not support the government's move to axe universal wholesale pricing and is at a loss as to why the National Party would support this change. As I said, two years ago I stood in this place and pleaded with the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the then Communications Minister Turnbull not to wreck the NBN in our community. They did not listen. For those who have been lucky enough to be connected—and they are few and far between—we have a second-class broadband network that has been delivered for twice the price. So much for the great economic managers that the conservatives like to pat themselves on the back and claim they are. For those who have not been able to connect due to the neglect and the failures of this Prime Minister, I will recommit to you that we will make sure you receive the fast and inexpensive broadband you deserve.

Earlier today the lead speaker of the government spent 15 minutes talking, and he spent less than two minutes talking about the NBN. He talked about black spot towers. I want to remind him of the way the so-called black spot towers were rolled out. In New South Wales there were 144 towers rolled out. Labor electorates received 12. In Victoria there were 110 towers rolled out. Labor electorates received only 12. This shows that this program is not working. It is not working because the government did not even follow the three criteria it lauded itself on—that is, rural and regional, close to major transport routes and prone to natural disasters. This was a pork-barrelling exercise to ensure that they looked after their own mates in their own regions.

We also had the member for Grey come in here and say, 'There is not a cigarette paper between Labor and Liberal when it comes to broadband.' We have heard that before in education, and look how that went! If we go by the member for Grey's words, you can be assured that a re-elected Liberal government will not give you high-speed broadband now or into the future.

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