Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Malcolm Turnbull's handling of the National Broadband Network has been nothing short of calamitous. His government's desperate attempts to cover up the mess he has made of the NBN is no less spectacular. The facts are extremely clear. Malcolm Turnbull said that his second-rate NBN would cost $29.5 billion; instead, we found out it is costing almost double, up to $56 billion now. He said he would get his second-rate NBN to all homes in Australia by this year, by 2016. This time frame has of course not been achieved and indeed has now blown out to more than double. We are now looking at 2020, not 2016.

Malcolm Turnbull said that his second-rate copper NBN would cost $600 per home. We know that the cost has nearly tripled to some $1,600 per home. He said it would cost $55 million to patch up the old copper network and this cost has blown by more than 1,000 per cent to more than $640 million. Indeed that has been the particularly astonishing part of the mess that we now find ourselves in. As the member for Cunningham said previously, the government is replacing 19th-century copper with more 19th-century copper for a 21st-century technology. The stupidity of that has not been lost on the people of Newcastle, I can assure you. The fact that we have purchased enough copper to go to Bangkok and back now is ridiculous.

Let's not forget Malcolm Turnbull said that there would be 2.61 million homes that would be connected to the pay TV cables also by 2016—that is, this year; nbn co is now forecasting that it will connect only 10,000 homes by June 2016. So we are not getting the 2.6 million homes that we were promised; indeed, it is significantly scaled down to just 10,000. Malcolm Turnbull said that his second-rate network would also bring in $2.5 billion in revenue in 2016-17. This has crashed to only $1.1 billion. He has blown a $1.4-billion hole in nbn co's revenue line already.

Malcolm Turnbull guaranteed NBN downloads speeds between 25 and 100 megabytes per second; instead NBN users in my electorate of Newcastle are getting about five megabytes per second on the highest available NBN plans. There is a big difference between five megabytes that people are getting in actuality as opposed to the promised 25 to 100. He also promised more accountability and disclosure to the Australian people; instead we have seen cover-up and loaded review panels.

How did we get to this very sad state of affairs? While in opposition, the then shadow communications minister, now Prime Minister Mr Turnbull, said 'we are going to do a rigorous analysis'. That was what he promised us. He said:

We are going to do a rigorous analysis, we will get Infrastructure Australia to do an independent cost benefit analysis.

Instead of appointing the independent Infrastructure Australia as promised, Mr Turnbull appointed the so-called Vertigan panel—former Labor Liberal Party staffers, Liberal Party advisers, and noted and strident critics of the NBN. 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. The cost models have since been proven to be hopelessly wrong as the cost of the government's second-rate NBN has blown out from the $41 billion assumed in December 2013 strategic plan up to $56 billion assumed in nbn co's latest corporate plan. When Malcolm Turnbull released his strategic review in December 2013 he said it was:

… the most thorough and objective analysis of the National Broadband Network 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.

But the Vertigan panel also made other 'assumptions' to deliver to their master, to make sure that the answer he was looking for was always going to be provided. The Vertigan panel 'assumed' that the median household in Australia would require only 15 megabytes per second by 2023. This absurd assumption was universally panned—67 per cent of Australians on the NBN are already ordering speeds higher than this. This was a loaded panel that made assumptions well outside of reality.

The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015, as introduced, was a misguided and ideological attempt by government to roll back a number of competition- and consumer-friendly reforms underpinning the National Broadband Network. The industry response to the Vertigan panel's market and regulatory report was rightfully scathing. The Competitive Carriers' Coalition released a statement calling on the recommendations to be 'binned', noting that:

After deliberating all year, the Vertigan panel has recommended that Australia look to emulate 1970s US telephone industry policy to promote investment in 21st century broadband networks … most of the Vertigan recommendations represent nothing more than rehashed, discredited theoretical arguments promoted by opponents of regulatory reform and the NBN.

The industry response to this bill before us here has been scathing as well. Industry has pointed to the risk of consumer detriment from the proposed measures. The peak telecommunications consumer body in Australia, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, ACCAN, has raised similar concerns about the risk of consumer detriment. The government ignored these concerns in its majority report of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, recommending that the bill be passed without amendment. But today the government has been forced into a humiliating backdown on this bill. The amendments introduced by the government follow to the letter Labor's recommendations in its dissenting report to the legislation committee. Labor is pleased that the government is finally heeding the recommendation of industry and is 'binning' the recommendations of the Vertigan review.

I guess the big question is: what has this government really got to hide? Last week, the Senate was forced to amend the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2015 due to the Turnbull government's refusal to provide the most basic financial information about how nbn co is spending $30 billion dollars in taxpayer investment. Late last week the government then amended this legislation so that nbn co does not have to release information that it used to release—basic, simple information like total capex, total opex, total revenue and the amount of interest that nbn co will pay. This is all information that nbn co used to release in corporate plans when Labor was in government. This argument that the government is using—that this information is somehow commercial-in-confidence—is complete nonsense. It is a move by a desperate government and a desperate Prime Minister who is willing to do whatever it takes to try and hide the mess he has made of the NBN.

How can the information be commercial-in-confidence if nbn co used to release it in the past? It is an outrage indeed that nbn co and the Turnbull government will not provide the Australian parliament, and the Australian people, with basic financial information about how nbn co intends to spend $29.5 billion dollars of taxpayers' money. The Senate has asked for this information in committee hearings, questions on notice and through orders for the production of documents, but on each and every occasion the government has refused to provide this information. The hypocrisy of this government and this Prime Minister is breathtaking. When Malcolm Turnbull was shadow minister he used to lecture us about transparency. On 24 September 2013 Malcolm Turnbull said:

… our commitment is, our focus is, to have a much greater level of transparency and openness …

That was in 2013. But even on 11 February 2014 the now Prime Minister was arguing that:

Maximum transparency is going to be given to this project.

That is what he promised when he was the shadow minister for communications. Likewise, in the same month, February of 2014, he said:

The bottom line is that as far as the NBN project is concerned, the government's commitment is to be completely transparent.

Again, in April 2014, he reiterated:

The government requires a high degree of transparency from NBN Co in its communication with the public and parliament.

There is a series of these fervent pleas from the Prime Minister for transparent democracy and, of course, we on this side of the House could not agree more. Regretfully, and somewhat typical of the Prime Minister now, these promises have turned out to be nothing but waffle—saying one thing while in opposition and doing exactly the opposite when he gets in power and is in a position to bring about serious change. A shroud of secrecy has descended over this project since Malcolm Turnbull took over, with basic information that was previously made public now being completely hidden. It is little wonder that people are asking, 'What is it that this government has to hide?' How could it possibly be any worse than the complete mess the Prime Minister has already made of this project?

In my electorate of Newcastle we were one of the first to be dudded by Malcolm Turnbull's mess of the NBN, with most people only receiving access to the fibre-to-the-node network. Since the rollout started, my office has been inundated with complaints about the NBN and the work being undertaken on the ground.

Firstly, there are those who have been able to connect to the NBN—like Simon from Merewether, who hooked up to the NBN as soon as he could, hoping to get a dramatic improvement in speed compared to his existing ADSL connection. He used to get eight megabits per second on ADSL; now, on the NBN, he gets less than three.

There is Robbie from Newcastle. He too signed up to the NBN as soon as he could. He used to get 12 megabits per second on ADSL; now he gets speeds as low as one megabit per second on the NBN, despite signing up to a 100-megabit-per-second plan.

Then we have Bill from Hamilton. Bill signed up to the NBN after being convinced by his service provider that it was the right thing to do. Since he got hooked up he cannot be on both his home phone and the internet at the same time. Calls come through and the internet drops out. It is a very frustrating experience when he is trying to download larger files.

Secondly, there are those who have been taken out as collateral damage, many having services cut despite their best efforts to steer clear of the calamitous NBN rollout. There is Robert from Carrington. Robert and his wife are an elderly couple who do not use the internet but do rely on their home phone. Robert's wife has cancer and is heavily reliant on the home phone for emergencies and to coordinate medical appointments. They do not want the NBN but they have quite a bit of work going on in their suburb—work that has led to their home phone service being disconnected without notice.

There is John from North Lambton. He lost his home phone and ADSL broadband without notice and went three weeks without any service whatsoever. Thomas from Cooks Hill suffered the same deal. His home phone was disconnected without warning.

And then there are a series of local business in Newcastle—a bridal business, a medical surgery and a florist—all of which have had significant losses and impacts on their capacity through the NBN.

Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN is an absolute mess. Costs have doubled, time lines for the rollout have blown out, patching up the old copper network is a lost cause, revenue has crashed and speeds are abysmal. It is not good enough. (Time expired)

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