Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Let me address a number of comments made by the member for Greenway in relation to the NBN. I thought it might be informative to look at the number of premises that were ready for service in the electorate of Greenway as at 9 September 2013. When Labor left government it was about 10,000. Today it is over 46,000. How many were connected when Labor left government? It was not 10,000 and it was not 1,000; it was 237 people. There were 237 people connected to the NBN in the electorate of Greenway when Labor left office and today there are 32,000 premises.

Whitlam is another interesting electorate and another interesting case study. There were 871 ready for service on 9 September 2013, when Labor left office after 4½ years of supposedly delivering the NBN. They had managed 871. How many are ready for service in Whitlam today? Remember that there were 871 when Labor left office. How many are ready for service today? Seventy-two thousand. The number connected in 2013 was 54 and today it is 35,000.

The member for Greenway also asked about the broadband monitoring program. I welcome her generous, open-minded support for this program. This is an important program. Indeed, on 7 April this year the Turnbull government announced a commitment to funding $7 million for the Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting Program. That funding will go to the ACCC to implement the program. Of course, the ACCC is well placed to manage this program, given its role in enforcing the Competition and Consumer Act.

The program will be funded on a cost-recovery basis from industry via the annual carrier licence charge. Carriers will be required to contribute to the cost only if they are providing broadband products over the NBN. The broadband monitoring and reporting program to be carried out by the ACCC and funded by the Turnbull government is a very important initiative. I thank the shadow minister for her interest in the program.

I was asked some questions by the member for Mayo about the Mobile Black Spot Program, rounds 1 and 2. The Mobile Black Spot Program was structured so that applications were made on a base-station-by-base-station basis and ranked in accordance with the guidelines. One of the factors which weighed on the rankings was the amount of money contributed from other sources, including state governments, the telcos themselves and private sector contributors. That meant that this was a very effective way to leverage the Commonwealth taxpayer contribution to maximise the outcomes. It is the case, unfortunately, that the South Australian government committed no money at all to support round 1 and only $1.5 million to support round 2. While we welcome that, the reality is that that was materially less than most other state governments. As a consequence of that, 20 mobile blackspots were funded in South Australia in round 2, of which two were in Mayo. I would encourage the member to take that matter up with the South Australian government, but it is pleasing that it has been possible to fund two base stations in Mayo, and I hope there will be further opportunities in the future.

The member for Berowra asked about the Sackville North tower and gave, I thought, a very good explanation of the value of the Mobile Black Spot Program and the benefits that that can deliver to communities which do not have adequate mobile coverage at the moment. He spoke at some length about how important the role of the local Rural Fire Service is in Sackville North and described his visit to that important location. I want to thank the member for Berowra for his interest in the Mobile Black Spot Program. He asked about progress on that tower, and I can advise the House that construction of the Sackville North tower is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2017 and, subject to planning approval from council, to be online by Christmas.

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