Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to speak on this MPI because the NBN is in Labor's blood. It's in our DNA. We created the NBN, and we're incredibly proud of it. These guys opposite mucked it up. They messed it up. They've killed it. There are just a couple of issues I'd like to go through before I get to the substance of my speech.

The member for Page, who's unfortunately no longer with us, said the NBN didn't have to be delivered by government. He is a member who represents the far north-east of New South Wales. I cannot imagine any corporation or any telecommunications company breaking their neck to deliver NBN services to the good constituents of Page. So he might want to have a talk to his constituents about that.

My good friend the member for Fisher was scoffing at the cost of service delivery for cherrypicked premises. I wonder if those opposite, especially National Party members, have the same attitude and put the same logic to extending services like roads and powerlines and power poles and telephone wires to remote and rural areas of this country. They cost more per premises to deliver as well, and they too, like the NBN, are essential services. So there are two issues there.

Tasmanians know about the digital divide. We live with it every day. The Australian Digital Inclusion Index, which the shadow minister referred to, shows that Tasmania still lags in the broadband stakes. Southern Tasmania, which includes part of my electorate, is in the bottom five digitally included regions in Australia. In 2014, Tasmania's digital inclusion score was 4½ points behind Victoria. Now it's 7.7. For digital ability, in 2015, there was a 5.8-point difference, and now it's 8.6. The affordability gap has blown out from one point in 2015 to 7.9 points now. It's going in the wrong direction under this government. Ever since the election of the Liberal government, Tasmania's digital gap has widened.

What a different story it was under Labor, when Tasmanian towns and cities were the first in the country to benefit from Labor's real NBN, with fibre to the premises delivered in Sorell, Midway Point, Smithton and Scottsdale, Launceston and Hobart. These places are now the envy of the country, delivering superfast broadband. We've got Launceston, the first gigabit city in the country. One can only imagine how bad the digital divide in Tasmania would have been if Labor had not delivered fibre to the premises.

The Prime Minister says that Australia should have followed the New Zealand example—he's quoted in the press—of splitting an existing telecommunications company into wholesale and retail rather than creating the NBN. He conveniently forgets that his side privatised Telstra, as my friend the member for Fremantle mentioned, and refused to include separation when it did so. And those opposite, including the Prime Minister before he became the Prime Minister, opposed Labor's legislation at the time for separation. He says that Labor should have followed the New Zealand example, but he was one of the very people who prevented it from happening.

The NBN didn't exist before 2009. It was conceived, developed and started under Labor, and it was starting to roll out in just four years, a mammoth infrastructure project. The size of it almost can't be conceived, and it was rolling out in four years, and it was well underway when those opposite came to power and they demolished it. Who can forget that cringe-worthy performance by the Prime Minister when he was the shadow communications minister, with the former opposition leader Tony Abbott, member for Warringah? He was the man who invented the internet! They said they were going to crush the NBN and create their version of it—a cringe-worthy performance. That was the beginning of the end for the NBN in this country, and this Prime Minister has kept that up. He's been an absolute disgrace as a Prime Minister and the worst communications minister in this country. He had one job, to deliver an NBN that this country could be proud of, and he's wrecked it. As Prime Minister, he's had the power and the authority to deliver an NBN that Australians can be proud of and that can close the digital divide in this country, but instead he's widened it. He's made it worse. He's delivered an NBN that no-one is proud of, where complaints are soaring. Nobody wants to be part of it. He's so embarrassed about it that he doesn't want to answer questions in this place and defers to his junior minister. It is an absolute disgrace, and I back the shadow minister in this MPI. Only Labor can deliver a real NBN. (Time expired)

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