Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

It's very difficult to talk about a matter that concerns rural and regional Australia without mentioning the circumstances of drought-stricken communities. This morning I was reminded of the impact that it's having in the Illawarra and on the South Coast. I spoke to Labor's candidate for the seat of Gilmore about the circumstances facing the dairy industry on the South Coast. Fiona Phillips, Labor's candidate for the seat of Gilmore, comes from four generations of dairy farmers on the South Coast. Her family is still involved in the dairy industry. She reminded me that the drought is affecting the industry on the South Coast enormously. She told me a story of one farmer who was taking 80 cattle to the abattoir every week. There are very real concerns that on the South Coast over 50 per cent of the family-owned dairy farms will not be in operation by Christmas. So we know that this is having a devastating impact on families, on communities and on businesses in rural and regional Australia.

Against that background, we have to consider what the obligation of government is. We know that governments cannot make it rain, but we are quite certain that governments have an obligation to ensure that we do not make life harder for communities and businesses and farmers in rural and regional Australia. We need to ensure that our response is adequate to the challenges at hand. And I have to say: while the response from the government, announced during the midwinter break, was welcome, it was not adequate. The response has been criticised, quite rightly, by farming communities as overly bureaucratic, slow and inadequate to the challenges that farming communities are meeting.

Communities from regional Australia, whether they send a National Party MP, a Liberal Party MP or an Independent or a Labor Party MP to this place, expect us to stand up for the needs of rural and regional Australia—not just in crisis but in normal times as well. We know that rain will come. And we know that, as every day goes past, we are one day closer to the drought breaking. That is why we need to set our minds to the task of what needs to be put in place to sustain those communities through the drought, and to set rural and regional Australia up for the future.

That is why we, on the Labor side of the House, were so concerned when we had confirmed last night that a plan was afoot between the NBN and the government to slug rural and regional consumers of NBN products up to $20 extra a month for accessing wireless internet services from the NBN. We had it confirmed, late last night at an NBN committee, that there was a plan afoot to slug the 240,000 premises throughout the country who access their broadband internet services through a fixed wireless NBN service up to $240 extra a year. This is for a substandard service. This is for a service that we now know, as each week goes by, is suffering more and more congestion. And we know that the NBN is putting in place plans to, in their own words, try to groom or throttle the access to those internet services, to ensure that the demand matches the bandwidth that is available. Charging those consumers is not the right answer.

If anybody doubts that this plan was afoot, they need look no further than the words of the NBN and the government spokespersons themselves. At 8 am today on ABC radio in Hobart the presenter asked an NBN spokesperson:

Is it fair that customers why just, by I guess where they live, have to pay more for a service that's available in the city?

The answer from the NBN spokesperson was:

Well this is one of the realities of the internet.

The answer from this government at eight o'clock this morning was: 'That's just the reality of the internet. You just have to get over it.'

By 11 o'clock this morning the backflip was in full swing. I have to pay credit to the member for Lyons, who was instrumental in putting a spotlight on this plan in the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network in this place last night. It was not a member of the National Party—because no member of the National Party even turned up to the committee to put pressure on the NBN and to put a spotlight on the plans that we knew were afoot from the NBN and the government. It wasn't a member of the National Party. It was not even one of the regional Liberal representatives who are members of that committee. It was the member for Lyons who exposed the plan. It was the member for Lyons, representing a regional community in Tasmania, who exposed the plan that was afoot. By 12 o'clock today the minister was shamed and embarrassed into withdrawing the position. But what is absolutely clear is that, had it not been for the pressure applied by the member for Lyons and the Labor Party, regional and rural consumers would have been paying $20 a month more from Monday—not from next year—for accessing exactly the same services as people in the cities.

The minister cannot pretend, as he has attempted to do today, that he knew nothing about it. Members opposite who pretend to represent rural and regional communities cannot pretend to have known nothing about it, because members opposite would have had available to them—as I have had available to me and as all members for rural and regional communities have had available to them—submissions that have been made by every telecommunications company in the country to the regional and rural telecommunications review. Every telecommunications company has put a submission into that review saying that the government has a plan for differential pricing for NBN services accessed over the wireless internet platform and that this is going to have an iniquitous impact on rural and regional communities. They cannot claim to have had no knowledge. It was in the written submissions.

I am sure the telecommunications companies were raising the same objections with the Minister for Regional Communications, who is not interested in anything unless it has got a hockey stick strapped to it. She is supposed to be the Minister for Regional Communications, but she has been completely missing in action on this issue.

Members opposite have been caught out. They were but days away from implementing a new plan that would have had regional consumers slugged a minimum additional $240 per annum on their internet bills. These guys talk about the costs of living. Here is a cost-of-living impact that they have a direct responsibility for.

This whole episode makes it clear that you cannot trust the National Party and you cannot trust the Liberal Party—in fact, you cannot trust anyone on that side of the House—when it comes to providing internet services, broadband services and telecommunications services for regional and rural communities. You cannot trust them. They are either ignorant of the facts or asleep at the wheel and doing nothing about it. Labor has a plan and Labor will ensure that these communities get the internet services they deserve. It was Labor that conceived of the National Broadband Network after a decade of inaction from those on the other side of the House—a decade of inaction. It was Labor that conceived of the NBN. It was Labor that had a plan to ensure that they would get a fibre-optic cable connection to every premises in those large towns, villages and cities throughout regional Australia. It was the National Party and it was the Liberal Party who sold them out. Not only have they sold them out on the plan and on the rollout, they have not had the strength, they've not had the attention to the subject matter, to ensure that the plan is thoroughly rolled out in their regional and rural communities so that they get the services they deserve.

When you talk about prices and the cost of living, this is something which is directly within your control, and you have been found wanting. Once again, not one National Party member and not one Liberal Party member has done their job and stood up to the government— (Time expired)

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