Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015. Like the previous speaker I want to acknowledge that on this day 20 years ago the Howard federal coalition government was elected. I remember that day well. I was watching on election night and it was a great relief that the coalition had been elected after years of Labor government incompetence. I remember clearly that we were left with $96 billion in debt and it was the federal coalition government that paid it off. What did we have to do at that stage? We had to actually sell Australia's communication network Telstra. This time, coming into government in 2013, we were left with something like $250 billion in debt, but there was not a lot left to sell. Those opposite voted for those increases in debt.

This bill will implement the government's response to the independent cost-benefit analysis and review into NBN arrangements that was undertaken by a panel in 2014. Basically, the measures in this bill will finetune NBN's business obligations and administration. Unlike Labor, the coalition government care about providing taxpayers with value for money. That is why at the last federal election we said we would do an independent cost-benefit analysis on major infrastructure projects, as we did for this in 2014. The federal government care about having a world-class telecommunications network.

There are four measures in this bill. The first is changes to clarify regulation surrounding access to facilities. At the moment, access to telecommunications facilities—pits, pipes, ducts, mobile towers—is regulated under several schedules of the Telecommunications Act and is also regulated by the ACCC under part of the Competition and Consumer Act. This causes confusion, so amendments clarify that access and determine what part will have precedence over access determined under the Telecommunications Act. This clarifies the relationship between the two acts.

The second change is to ensure a service provider who controls or owns in-building cabling must provide access to that cabling as part of providing access to a declared service. This is especially relevant in my electorate of Petrie, particularly in the Redcliffe Peninsula, where there are quite a few high-rise buildings and apartment blocks. This change will remove the potential of restricting access to competitors and ensures end users can get faster access to broadband and telephone services. If someone owns the in-building cabling, they cannot prevent a telecommunications company providing a service to the consumer in that building.

Third, we are also making changes to the wording around fixed principle provisions to improve the consistency and effectiveness. This is basically a procedural change that the Senate committee and the industry have supported.

Fourth and finally, the bill will change nbn's line-of-business restrictions to ensure the National Broadband Network can dispose of surplus assets to any person. Currently, it can only sell those assets to another carrier or service provider. For example, the current law prevents nbn from selling surplus office equipment or vehicles unless it supplies an eligible service to the potential buyer unless the sales is connected with the supply of that eligible service. This is very impractical, and it makes sense that a government owned organisation like nbn can sell surplus vehicles or office equipment to anyone that they choose and get the best value for taxpayers where they can.

As you can see, what the government is doing here is making the National Broadband Network processes more efficient and effective. Every day since this federal coalition government was elected, this government has put priority on rolling out a world-class telecommunications network as fast and as cost-effectively as possible. That is very relevant after the $43 billion blow-out under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years—$43 billion which only racked up the debt even more.

Unlike the Labor Party, we know we are working with taxpayers' money. The Australian government money comes from taxpayers, those hardworking Australians who pay income tax and company tax, the people the Labor opposition want to hit with their changes to negative gearing and superannuation. Through the great work of the Prime Minister, the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, and the Minister for Communications, the Hon. Mitch Fifield, and their staff, almost two million premises around the country can right now access the NBN. That is an 80 per cent increase on what it was when we were elected. That is a big improvement. It is actually a very stark contrast to Labor's NBN mess, which saw fewer than two per cent of the population hooked up to the NBN, at a cost of some $6 billion. Labor does not understand that every dollar wasted comes out of taxpayers' pockets and that every dollar wasted is a dollar that has to be repaid with interest by the next generation of Australians, which is irresponsible.

What a legacy we were left with! Luckily, the people in my electorate of Petrie and around this nation are in the safe and effective hands of the coalition government. I have been strongly advocating in my electorate of Petrie for a faster NBN rollout. I was very proud to announce that last year 53,390 local households had been prioritised for the rollout. This is happening years sooner than Labor's 2024 completion date. In suburbs in my electorate like North Lakes, Mango Hill and Griffin—fast-growing areas in my electorate with loads of new people coming in—construction is due to begin in July 2016, just three or four months away. There will be 5,020 priority premises around the North Lakes, Mango Hill and Griffin areas. This is very important because that area in my electorate has a very fast growing business sector. It is a little city in its own right just north of Brisbane. These people certainly do need better internet and telecommunications connections than other parts of my electorate.

Thirty per cent of my electorate is in the Brisbane City Council, which has probably better services at the moment. I grew up in Bracken Ridge. It has better services than what the Moreton Bay regional sections of the electorate have, so I am very pleased about this priority rollout beginning in July for North Lakes, Mango Hill and Griffin. The design in this area has been completed, and they are ready to kick it off. So that is that area.

There will also be a second round of construction in Mango Hill, and it will begin in the second half of 2017. The Prime Minister knows this part of my electorate very well. He came up prior to the 2013 federal election, when the Park Vista Estate, a new estate in my electorate, basically had no telephone or internet services. After his visit, very quickly those services were connected when he was the shadow minister. I want to thank him again publicly for that.

In the Redcliffe Peninsula and Rothwell areas, as part of the multitechnology mix in the National Broadband Network, the NBN will connect homes to already-present pay TV or HFC networks, which are some of the most competitive in offering superfast broadband. Under the previous government this infrastructure was going to be junked. It was bought back from Optus. They paid millions of dollars for it, and it was going to be scrapped, but we are using this technology. I am very pleased to say to the people in Redcliffe and the people in my electorate that the Redcliffe Peninsula in our electorate was the first trial site in Australia to have this technology tested. The rollout to some 22,000 across Redcliffe has started, and you should hear more from the nbn over the coming months.

Construction of thousands of new lead-ins has now been completed to houses in Redcliffe that did not already have one—there were already houses that had pay TV services previously and had a lead-in. People very soon will be able to get a connection.

In Rothwell, NBN construction will start on 600 priority homes by July this year—so that is great news for Rothwell. A second round of construction in Rothwell will begin in July 2017. Aspley, Bridgeman Downs or Carseldine in the Brisbane City Council area most homes are already connected to the NBN, and the rollout is continuing—I am very pleased about that.

A second round of construction in Bridgeman Downs will also begin in July 2017. In Bridgeman Downs there are a lot of homes with acreage, so it is important that that area is connected. In Bald Hills, Bracken Ridge and Fitzgibbon construction will start in the second half of 2017. In places like Bracken Ridge and the neighbouring suburbs like Brighton, they will also be able to use the HFC connections which have already been rolled in Redcliffe.

In Deception Bay construction will start on 1,960 priority premises around Burpengary and Burpengary East—part of my electorate—in July 2016, so very soon, and the rest of Deception Bay NBN construction will begin in July 2017.

I believe that pretty well every home in my electorate should be connected by the end of 2018; everyone should be connected. That is probably two years earlier than the rest of the country for every home to be connected and some six years earlier than what it would have been under Labor's plan.

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