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

I am pleased, first of all, to make the point that the Turnbull government's expectation—indeed, it's requirement and standard—is that all lines on the fixed line network must have the capacity to deliver a speed of 25 megabits per second. If they don't deliver that, there is a requirement that they be remediated. In the case of the specific instance the member has raised, I am confident that the minister's office will get the details from you and identify whether there is a need for remediation.

Let me turn next to the question of the impact of the NBN rollout in Queensland and indeed nationally. The member for Bonner has just referred to an important report that came from data analytics and economics firm AlphaBeta about the social and economic impacts of the National Broadband Network. As the member for Bonner has outlined, in his own electorate more than 51,000 premises are ready for service and some 17,500 are connected. The contrast with the status when we came to government in 2013, inheriting six years of chaotic and incompetent mismanagement of this project by Labor, is very instructive. The number connected in 2013 was not 1,750, which would be 10 per cent of that number, and it wasn't even 175, which would be one per cent of that number. The number was 68. A mighty 68 premises in the entire electorate of Bonner was all Labor had managed to achieve in six years of rank incompetence in their attempt to deliver on this project!

By contrast, since we have come to government we have turned this project around. In Queensland, only 12 per cent of premises are still waiting for NBN construction to start. When the Labor Party left office fewer than 8,000 premises in the entire state were connected to the NBN whereas today under the coalition over 1.5 million premises in Queensland are able to connect to the NBN. The coalition's faster rollout means Australians are being connected years earlier than would have been the case under Labor's plan, and by directing NBN strategy away from Labor's gold-plated plan we have avoided home internet bills increasing by around $500 a year.

The member for Bonner, who takes a great interest in these matters, raised the issue of the report done by data analytics firm AlphaBeta. That report shows some very interesting findings about the social and economic impacts of better broadband. What it finds is that business growth rates in NBN areas have been more than five times the pace of those regions without access to the NBN. In 2017 the NBN generated an estimated $1.2 billion in additional economic activity and this is expected to multiply to $10.4 billion a year by the end of the rollout. And the evidence has found—and this is very interesting—that more women are becoming their own bosses when they have access to the NBN. The annual growth rate of self-employed women in NBN connected areas is 2.3 per cent, compared to 0.1 per cent in non-NBN connected areas. It is easy to see how. With the improved capacity to operate a business from home, with the improved capacity to send and receive large files—so important in a whole range of businesses, whether you are an architect or a graphic designer—all kinds of businesses benefit from improved internet connectivity. But it is very exciting to see the social and economic benefits being found, according to independent data analytics firm AlphaBeta, thanks to the coalition's accelerated rollout of the NBN. Again it is constructive to compare that to the hopeless delivery record of Labor, where great swathes of the country saw no benefit from the NBN. We have turned that around under the coalition.

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