Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015, as introduced by this government, just shows what a mess the government is in with its NBN. We see it day in, day out. We saw it today on the front page of TheSydney Morning Herald, through a leaked nbn co internal document. But we do not need to read about it in the paper to know what a mess it is. All you have to do is go out and talk to your constituents or read your emails to know what a mess the NBN is, in Australia, under this government and to know what a mess was made of the NBN rollout under the Prime Minister, when he was communications minister.

In my home state of Tasmania, before the last federal election, we were promised that the NBN would be a faster speed, be delivered sooner and be cheaper. We now know that that is not true—not just for Tasmania but for the whole country. In their pre-election document, the Liberal Party promised, in black and white, that the full NBN rollout in Tasmania would be completed by 2015. Since that time, not one home or premises has been connected to the Liberal Party's second-rate copper fibre to the node. Not one home in Tasmania has been connected to their NBN.

Since their election, in 2013, we have had a whole range of excuses from Liberal members in Tasmania. I was astounded to see, earlier in this debate today, the member for Lyons stand up and talk about the NBN in Tasmania and about good news for his electorate. I am sure his constituents do not agree that it is good news that their NBN is going to be a couple of years later than they were promised. I am sure that his constituents are not pleased with the good news that the NBN may be costing more, in regional Australia, thanks to the part in this bill where the government is seeking to change the wholesale price.

What they are suggesting in the original bill is that the wholesale price will be different in regional Australia from what it is in the cities. People in regional Australia should be outraged by this suggestion. The member for Lyons, the member for Bass and the member for Braddon from Tasmania should be outraged by this suggestion. I am not sure where the Nationals in the coalition are on this matter. I would be astounded to hear the Nationals members come into this parliament and support a wholesale price differential in rural and regional Australia compared to the cities. It is an outrageous suggestion that people in the city should get the NBN cheaper. The NBN was designed to overcome the tyranny of distance, so why would you make it more expensive for the people who will need it the most, the people in rural and regional Australia? It does not make sense.

I understand the government has decided that it will cut that part out of the bill in the amendments it intends to move. I am pleased to hear that is the case, although I am not sure what motivated it and whether or not it might come back. The Vertigan report, which has led to this bill, suggested wholesale pricing and a differential in wholesale pricing. I am not sure whether the government is now saying it does not agree with the Vertigan report—which it commissioned, full of its own Liberal Party experts and Liberal Party advisers, rather than the Infrastructure Australia full-cost analysis, which the Prime Minister promised before the election and, of course, did not do. They were out trumpeting it at the time and the assumptions in that report used figures that were completely wrong, as we found out today. What we heard was Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, said that his second-rate NBN would cost $29.5 billion, but we now know it will cost almost double that at $56 billion.

We of course heard from him that we would get his second-rate NBN to all Australian homes by this year—2016—but we now know that the time frame has pushed out to 2020. We of course heard that the second-rate copper NBN would cost around $600 per home and that this cost is now $1,600 a home. And then, of course, there was the state of the old copper network, which would need to be upgraded. Of course, the assumptions here were just quite extraordinary.

We were told it would cost around $55 million to patch up the old copper network. Obviously, they had not been out and seen any of it. I have certainly seen some in my electorate and it needs more than a patch up. It has now come out that it is about $640 million to fix the existing copper network, because it is so degraded. But they should have known that already. We heard today from one of the ministers that he used to work in the industry. He should have known what condition that copper was in. The government should have known what condition that copper was in. It is just remarkable that they would have said that it would only cost $55 million to patch up, and it is now $640 million.

Then, of course, was the assumption that 2.6 million homes would be connected via pay TV cables by 2016. We now know that nbn co is forecasting that they will only connect around 10,000 homes by June 2016. And we heard that the second-rate network would bring in about $2.5 billion in revenue; this has now crashed to around $1.1 billion in revenue. We also heard before the election that the satellites that were going up were not required. Indeed, the then Minister for Communications, the current Prime Minister, said prior to the election:

There is enough capacity on private satellites already in orbit or scheduled for launch for the NBN to deliver broadband to the 200,000 or so premises in remote Australia without building its own.

How wrong was he?

Indeed, I believe he actually went to the launch of the satellite and stood there, trying to claim credit for it. And we have now had members from the other side stand up and talk about the wireless satellite access that people will be getting and have been getting because of the satellite that Labor suggested needed to go up. We heard from those on the other side when they were in opposition that these satellites were not required and that private capacity was already there. And now we know that that is not true. There are so many errors, and what a debacle it has been!

And yet today, when getting questions here in question time, we heard nothing really from the Prime Minister to explain what went wrong. Why are we now hearing about the cost blow-outs? Why are we now hearing about the time frame blow-outs? Why is it not faster, sooner and cheaper as we were promised prior to the last election? Those opposite have been in government for 2½ years; it will be interesting to see the next lot of documents that suddenly appear in the newspaper about what the forecasts are going to be in coming months as we go into the election campaign, because my constituents in my electorate have really had enough of it. There are still parts of my electorate where people cannot even get ADSL. People cannot even get ADSL!

They cannot wait for Malcolm Turnbull's slower-to-turn-up, slower speeds, second-rate copper NBN. They cannot wait! They need internet services now. They are moving out of suburbs, their kids cannot do their homework and they cannot log online to their work emails. It is absolutely disgraceful that in this day and age, when we come into this place and talk about jobs and innovation and the jobs of the future, that Australia is in this position. We are in a position where we are not getting the world's best technology and where we have a complete mess of the National Broadband Network rollout.

Other countries in the world are moving to fibre to the premises, which of course was what we committed to when we were in government and which this government has backtracked on. Countries around the world realise that fibre to the premises is the way of the future. Instead, we have a messed-up, second-rate NBN going out. I will have constituents in my electorate who will be the haves and the have-nots. We have people, as I said, without internet access at all, but we will soon have—I understand in about six or seven months' time—people who will be the first people in my electorate to be connected to fibre to the node.

I have fibre to the premises at my home, as do a lot of other people in my electorate—fibre to the premises: Labor's real NBN. Indeed it is the NBN that everybody in my electorate wants and that everybody in my electorate thought they were going to get. One of the reasons that everybody in my electorate thought they were going to get it was because of a letter to the editor. When I raised the NBN prior to the last federal election I was accused of a scare campaign by Liberal senator for Tasmania, David Bushby. Indeed, in a letter to the editor he actually said, 'Julie Collins is running a scare campaign. There will be no difference in who gets fibre to their home in Tasmania under Labor or Liberal.' That was from Senator David Bushby in the newspaper, prior to the federal last election.

My constituents firmly believed that they were getting fibre to the premises. That is the fibre to the premises that some of my constituents actually have, as I said. Other constituents do not have the internet at all, and some are going to get fibre to the node—second-rate—who want fibre to the premises. There are whole suburbs and small towns in my electorate which still do not know when they are going to get the NBN. If you look up their address on the nbn co map they still actually have no idea when they are going to get it, after being promised the full rollout would be completed by 2015. So we have the situation in my home state where we have Liberal members coming in here, saying how wonderful their NBN is, how grateful their electorates should be and what great news it is when the truth is actually starkly different. Out and about in Tasmania, no matter where you go, people are complaining about the internet access—except, of course, for those who have Labor's fibre to the premises—Labor's real NBN. They know the value of Labor's real NBN; everybody else has seen it and everybody else wants it, because they know of the value and they know of the innovation and the jobs that will come with that.

Under the Labor Party, Tasmania was going to be the first state to be fully connected to the NBN—the first state. Of course, we do not think that is going to be the case now and we still do not know when the NBN rollout will be fully complete in Tasmania. As I said, I have small towns and suburbs that still do not know when they are going to be connected and which do not have the time frame for that. We have people on the west coast of Tasmania who were going to get fibre to the home who are now, of course, not getting that. There is great unrest in the Tasmanian community no matter where you look, so it is quite astonishing to have the Prime Minister in here today not fully and adequately answering questions in relation to the NBN and, even more bizarrely, to have the member for Lyons come in and say it was great news.

I was really surprised to listen to his speech today. I am sure that his constituents will be very surprised, because I certainly intend to tell them. He can rest assured that I will be out and about, campaigning in his seat and ensuring that Labor senators do the same about his comments on the NBN today, because, quite frankly, his electorate will not appreciate his comments in here on the NBN. They will not appreciate that what he said to them is good news. They will not appreciate the mistruths and the lies they were told before the last election by members of the Liberal Party in black and white on not one but several occasions: in their economic plan for Tasmania, in letters to the editor and in media statements. Every single time, the Tasmanians were told, 'Don't worry; you'll get the same under us as you're getting under Labor.' Of course, they now know that is not true and they are not very happy about it at all.

It is interesting that the members for Bass and Braddon have not come in to speak on this bill like the member for Lyons has. Perhaps they have been out talking to their constituents a little bit more. Perhaps they know from their constituents just what a terrible debacle it has been. Perhaps they also know that Tasmania is missing out on jobs of the future and the innovation jobs that Tasmania was expecting to receive thanks to being the first state to be fully connected to the real NBN.

To sum up: clearly, this government is in a mess with their NBN. Clearly, what was promised before the last election is not being delivered. Clearly, what the current Prime Minister when he was Minister for Communications said even when they came to government is not correct. Indeed, we have had very little explanation of what is going on with the NBN from either the Minister for Communications or the Prime Minister in this place or from the Minister representing the Minister for Communications. Obviously, they have a very good reason to hide it: they know that, when the truth comes out, when people know just how far behind they are going to be and just what the blown out costs are going to be, it will show just how badly the current Prime Minister mismanaged this.

He had just one job as Minister for Communications, and that was to roll out the National Broadband Network and do it within his promises. That has not been delivered, and, frankly, he should be ashamed of his record.

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