Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. I really appreciate your kind words. They mean a lot, and I think they will mean a lot to the people of Shortland as well, so thank you. I know that they are very genuine and I really appreciate you saying what you just said.

Now, on to business. Unfortunately, being a very strong advocate for my electorate, I have to stand in this House today and say the government has failed when it has come to the NBN. It has not delivered what they promised and it has caused a lot of angst within Shortland electorate. The NBN has been very unreliable. People have been exceptionally disappointed.

The legislation we have today before us looks at the Burdekin panels. Those panels were assembled by the current Prime Minister in December 2013 and are made up of former Liberal Party staffers and advisers. There has been strident criticism that has noted the fact that it has not really delivered what it was put there for. Industry and consumer advocates have raised significant concerns with measures in this bill, and I can only judge this legislation against what has been delivered as far as the NBN is concerned.

People have been contacting my office in droves. I was quite excited; Shortland electorate was one of the electorates in Australia that was really going to benefit from the rollout of the NBN. We were anticipating that we would get fast-speed broadband. We were disappointed that it was fibre to the node and copper to the house but we actually thought that it would be better than what existed previously. But the really disappointing aspect of the NBN and the rollout is the fact that it has not delivered the speeds that were promised. In actual fact it has led to lots of heartache, with people being without telephones or internet and with people feeling quite isolated as a result.

I will start with an example from just before Christmas, when it first started rolling out. A man on the disability pension agreed to have his phone and internet switched over to the NBN. When the switch-over took place, he was out a telephone, he was out any internet and he had very poor mobility.

So this man had to struggle—and I say struggle—down the street to a pay telephone. He rang, and appointments were made. And of course, as happens with this change-over, the appointment was broken—it was not kept. This person had absolutely no communication with the outside world. He did not have a mobile phone. We talked to the provider and we talked to NBN, and it soon became very apparent to us that they were not talking to each other.

So I went up the back and bought a mobile phone. I was loading it up. We told the provider that I was going to post on my Facebook that they would not even give him a mobile phone. Believe it or not, they then actually delivered a mobile phone to him the day before Christmas. But it should not come to that.

I am going to use the remainder of my time here to highlight some of the problems with the NBN. I did an interview on ABC Central Coast this morning, and one of the issues that was raised was around the NBN. The person that was interviewing raised the point that, not only on the Central Coast but also in Lake Macquarie, there have been enormous problems. He told me he had heard of a doctor who received information, and it was lifesaving information, via the internet. Previously he had ADSL and he received it, but now he has the NBN installed he cannot receive the data. This is really important information. He has to make a split-second decision as to the treatment of a person, and that decision can influence that person's life into the future or influence whether that person will survive the incident.

The most common problem is the fact that the NBN is not delivering the speeds that people were promised. That is one of the common problems. One of the constituents who has been in contact with my office quite frequently said that his NBN fluctuates between '95mps to 3mps'. He took 'the top plan of 100mps'. Despite paying the extra $30 to get the extra-fast internet, he is not getting it. He is very upset. He is a person that works from home and a person that has been having problems.

Another problem is that the NBN connection keeps dropping out. New modems have been supplied yet the problem continues. The internet is not working after the NBN has been connected. Once again, this is another person that has medical issues. I cannot emphasise enough how many times we have contacted the service provider—and it does not matter which service provider it is—and we contact the NBN, and yet the problem cannot be solved. There is appointment after appointment organised with technicians—and they are broken. The technicians are going to come around to connect the NBN, and then the next minute the appointment is cancelled and another one is set for the next day. For one customer, it took 10 weeks between the phone call requesting and ordering the NBN—and this is a person that was very computer literate—and she, as of the beginning of February, still did not have it installed.

Another person had the NBN connected but there was no switch-over and no service whatsoever. There are people, particularly older people, who are totally isolated—no telephone and no NBN. I have had numerous people contact my office and ask to be switched back to the previous system, to the old system. And of course they cannot be switched back.

I would not be raising this issue and emphasising the absolute importance of it if the problems were not as bad as they are. I have heard members on the other side talk about looking forward to the NBN coming to their area. Please, believe me: there are serious problems. You need to take it up with the Prime Minister, because it is his NBN. Do not for a moment think it is anyone else's. This rests with the Prime Minister. It is his plan and it is his scheme for the NBN. It needs to be taken up with him and it needs to be taken up with the communications minister. You do not want this to be rolled out like this in your electorates. You do not want it.

My staff have said to me that they think they should put a sign out the front saying, 'NBN complaints office'. That is how bad it is. I have in my hand here—and this is just a small number of what I have—over 80 complaints that we are working on in the office now. It is not one; it is not two. It is unbelievable how many people are experiencing problems.

The fact that people can end up with just a phone connection and no NBN connection—and then the provider and the NBN blaming each other—shows that it is a flawed system.

So does the fact that there have been so many problems in Shortland, which is an area that is, generally, fairly low-lying. I believe a lot of the problem has been associated with the condition of the copper wires—the fact that they are in such poor condition. So does the fact that we all know the government has been ordering more copper wire in from overseas. We are getting such a poor deal with this NBN. I say to all Australians: look at it very carefully. At least, when it comes to your area, wait and see what happens before you connect, because it is fraught with problems.

This second-rate NBN would have cost $41 billion, but it has gone up to $56 billion. That is an increase of $15 billion. The fibre to the node is costing a lot of money. It is costing $55 million to fix the copper wires, and this is a system that is going to be obsolete, nearly, by the time it is rolled out across Australia. At its best it cannot deliver the speed that is needed. In those countries where they have gone down the line of fibre to the node and copper to the home they are already moving to change to a different system. It is extremely worrying at this particular time in our history when we should be embracing new technologies and making ourselves as globally competitive as we can. The Prime Minister tells this House that it is an exciting time to be an Australian, that we must be agile and that we must be innovative, but we must have the tools. We must have the tools to be innovative and competitive. Until this government gets in there and fixes the problem that is not going to happen.

On Saturday, last week, I was outside the Belmont Medicare office. Mr Deputy Speaker Irons, I know you have a Belmont Medicare office, but I am quite sure the government is not about to close your Belmont Medicare office. Mine opened at the same time as yours. I was getting signatures for a petition. People were lining up to sign the petitions that I had with me. I had about half a dozen people with me and there were lines, all through the shopping centre, with people falling over each other to sign the petitions. But the thing that really struck me was the number of people who came up to me and said, 'I have the NBN. I wish I'd never signed up for it. I have so many problems with it.' We had a list; we were taking names of people as they were signing the petition.

I really need the government to listen and to understand that there is an enormous problem. It is vitally important that people can communicate with each other. We rely on the internet and we rely on the telephone. Without being able to communicate effectively, people are isolated. Without being able to communicate effectively, we as a nation will go down the drain. When I am down at the shopping centre raising an issue that is very important to people—and they are signing petitions about that—at the same time those people are complaining about the NBN and raising that as a major issue. The government needs to listen and act.

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