Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the questions I am frequently asked in my community is: 'When is the NBN coming to my suburb?' It is a question that is asked with increasing frustration and urgency by many local residents who, for a number of reasons, are being hindered by the slow and botched rollout of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN.

The unfortunate reality is that the entirety of my electorate of Chisholm, which includes the suburbs of Oakley, Clayton, Mount Waverley, Ashwood, Chadstone, Burwood, Blackburn South, Box Hill, Box Hill South, Box Hill North, Surrey Hills and Mont Albert, has remained on the bottom of the NBN rollout plan for established neighbourhoods. I do not represent a remote or regional community and yet, in some areas of my electorate, the fixed line infrastructure is so poor that entire streets are unable to be provided with fixed line ADSL connection. This is an appalling state of affairs and the actions of Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal government have only made the situation worse.

My office has been helping one constituent, Shivanee, who has been struggling for years with telecommunications providers to get the internet access she requires. Shivanee has a disability, which prevents her from being able to work and severely restricts her mobility. It is difficult for her to leave the house and she often feels quite socially isolated as a result. The internet is one of the best ways for Shivanee to stay in touch with the outside world and offers her an opportunity to participate in forums and activities that help provide meaning and purpose in her life.

Shivanee lives in Mount Waverley. She is 4.8 kilometres from the exchange. Telstra and other providers cannot provide her with fixed line ADSL as a result. Telstra will not be upgrading the exchange ahead of the NBN rollout. But we are not getting the NBN rollout, so this leaves us in a complete quandary. Mount Waverley does not have a rollout date for the NBN and Shivanee, who survives on the meagre support of a disability allowance, has been forced to rely on an extremely expensive 4G wireless connection. In an established suburb of one of the country's largest cities, she and her neighbours cannot get an ADSL connection.

Malcolm Turnbull promised to deliver his second-rate NBN 'Fast. Affordable. Sooner.' If the Prime Minister had kept his promise, Shivanee would be looking forward to being connected to the NBN by the end of this year. It might have been only a few months away. But it is not to be. While it still would have been second rate and unable to deliver the speeds of Labor's proper NBN, it might have prevented a person who was living in extreme financial hardship from needing to spend months fighting with Telstra, Vodafone and others over the unaffordable cost of their 4G wireless connection. I am very pleased to say that with the efforts of my office we have been able to help find an affordable solution for Shivanee that meets her needs. Unfortunately, her troubles are not the end of the story, and she has still been left with a very expensive phone bill.

The Liberals came to power promising that they would deliver a—second rate—NBN and it would be more affordable. They have broken these promises. The Liberals' broadband network will not provide adequate bandwidth, will be no more affordable than Labor's proper fibre-to-the-home network and will take longer to roll out.

Under Labor, the cost of the proper fibre-to-the-home NBN did rise, from $40.9 billion in December 2010 to $44 billion in September 2013—an increase of 10 per cent. The estimated funding required for Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN has almost doubled, from $28.5 billion before the 2013 election to $46 billion, and $56 billion now. Again, we read in today's paper that this is just getting worse. Any short-term internet speed benefit that could be offered by rolling out a second-rate fibre-to-the-node network by 2016 has been lost, due to the delays caused by this government's poor management. Instead, Malcolm Turnbull 's second-rate NBN will leave Australia firmly entrenched at the bottom of the world's internet speeds. That is not something we can do if we are meant to be innovating in this society.

So when Jeanette in Mont Albert writes to me:

As someone who works from home, and is reliant on the Internet to be able to access the work files, I'm dismayed.

I'm really struggling with poor internet connection this year and have really noticed the difference increased usage and congestion has been having. I'm losing productivity and literally losing hours where I can't access the Internet and therefore can't access the cms or files on the ftp site.

I cannot offer poor Jeanette any glimmer of hope that when and if Malcolm Turnbull's expensive, slow NBN arrives, it will even solve her problem.

This is just one of the many stories I am getting from those in my electorate who have been left at the bottom of the NBN pile, with no hope in sight, and no resolution, as no company will provide adequate ADSL now to people who are living and working very close to the CBD. We are asking people to look at innovative ways of doing things like working from home. How is this possible without proper broadband speed?

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