Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He's saying that's not right. The Prime Minister promised everyone would have access to NBN by the end of 2016. Through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, is that correct? No answer. By the end of 2016, more than seven million premises were still waiting for connection. The Prime Minister also promised that the NBN would be faster and cheaper. The reality is that he is delivering a second-rate NBN that is slower and more expensive.

We know that last week the communications minister said the government's second-rate NBN would be the envy of the world, but all of a sudden this week the NBN is a train wreck. So what's happened in one week? It went from being in hand to now being in chaos. It went from being commercially viable to the NBN CEO saying that he was no longer sure. As the shadow minister has said, the economics of copper are destroying the NBN. We all know it because when we're out campaigning we're listening to constituents in street corner meetings, at shopping centres—and the member for Macarthur receives the highest amount of complaints of anyone. Yet I know those opposite, who are campaigning and doing street stalls at yacht clubs and at Point Piper and country clubs, don't hear the same message that those on this side of the House are hearing. We hear it day in, day out. And do you know what, Mr Deputy Speaker? I know those opposite get complaints from constituents. I know the so-called minister has said that they deal with every one of those complaints.

Let's talk about my electorate of Oxley, and about my constituent Pam, of Sinnamon Park, who has had problem after problem since the NBN was installed in March this year. Of course, the service provider is blaming the NBN, and the NBN is blaming the service provider. It is still currently unresolved. Another of my constituents, Jean, of Westlake, finally had her issue resolved yesterday. Seven months it took, to solve a simple issue.

This is what the foreign affairs minister said this morning is a great success story for the coalition. On the front page of my local paper we read: 'Stranded. Switching to the NBN was supposed to be a godsend, but for five days last month Naomi and Marcus Hodgson had no internet or phone line at all. The couple, who study and run a business from their Springfield Lakes home, wish they had never chosen to be connected to the NBN.' Yet the foreign minister this morning told the party room it's a complete success for the coalition. Those opposite are in an alternative universe. Just once we would like them to apologise for the mess they've created in Australia which is their NBN. (Time expired)

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