Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy for the member for Hughes in the luck he has had with his community getting the NBN halfway through next year, whereas my community has to wait at least until the end of 2019. It's lucky for some, I suppose!

The Prime Minister has made many bold statements about the coalition's NBN, including that it's one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in Australia's history, it will be delivered for $29.5 billion and everyone will have access to it by the end of 2016. Of course, that's not the case. Unfortunately, unlike his colleague the member for Mallee, he has not been bold enough to acknowledge the truth, which is that the NBN rollout has become ridiculous. Like so many of us, the Nationals member for Mallee has to have one of his electoral office staff working nearly full-time to talk with constituents and help them deal with the implementation of the NBN to their homes and their businesses. The member for Mallee, on this point, is right: the rollout of the NBN is ridiculous. It's ridiculous because at the end of 2016 more than seven million premises were still waiting for access to the NBN. It's ridiculous because this multi-technology NBN mess has suffered a budget blowout of $20 billion. Instead of the $29.5 billion delivery cost, it's costing nearly $50 billion. And some of that is paying for 15 million metres of copper! I can hardly believe the things I hear. It's ridiculous because the reality of his corporate turnaround claim is soaring complaints from customers left languishing and constituents still waiting to be connected.

The Prime Minister scrapped Labor's world-class fibre-to-the-premises NBN. It was an innovative infrastructure project and it was a challenging project. It would have delivered the optical fibre technology needed to provide our businesses, our students—all of us—with the tools necessary to compete in the 21st century global economy. Instead, he has left people with a second-rate NBN—it's third- or fourth-rate if I'm honest—that is slower and more expensive, and that's for those who are lucky enough to have access to it.

Only last month I held a meeting in Baldivis with my colleague the member for Greenway, the shadow minister for communications. At this meeting we heard from a roomful of local residents about how their lives are being affected by substandard or non-existent internet access. I can tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that the local community needed no prompting to let us know the problems they're having with this abysmal NBN. The Prime Minister should acknowledge how frustrated people are in not being able to work, study or communicate effectively thanks to his inferior version of the National Broadband Network. The stories we heard brought home the impact that living in a communications black hole is having on people's lives. We heard how FIFO parents are not able to keep in touch with their children when they are working far away on-site. We heard how people have to drive to fast-food restaurants to get access to internet so they can check their emails and so their children can go online and do their assignments for school. We heard how people who, in a world with internet connectivity, should be able to log in, work from home and check their emails on a weekend instead have to get in their car and drive 45 minutes to the office. It's a disgrace in 2017 in a community only half an hour to 45 minutes from the Perth CBD.

Not only this but many people in this community of Baldivis—and in Port Kennedy and at some places in Safety Bay—have no mobile phone coverage. They have to leave their home to make phone calls. It's a disgrace! Many people cannot connect to ADSL, as there are not enough ports available. And, thanks to the delay in the NBN rollout—as I said earlier, to the end of 2019—

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