Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I'm conflicted about congratulating NBN for their Sky Muster satellite service. On the one hand, I do want to acknowledge that the launch of the Sky Muster satellites in 2015 and 2016 has vastly improved the delivery of satellite NBN services and customer satisfaction with the service. The original satellite service was not a success. The constant dropouts and slow speeds did enormous damage to the reputation of the technology, and NBN Co is paying the price for that now. Unfortunately, due to these early experiences my community views satellite as an inferior product. They're not mincing their words, expressing their views in the calls and emails to my office, and then telling me in person at the NBN sessions I've been holding across my community in recent months.

The NBN representatives have assured me and my community that the launch of the Sky Muster satellites in 2015-16 has improved the service. More needs to be done to articulate that message. With my NBN information sessions I've certainly attempted to help spread the message; however, it is a hard sell. Essentially, people are now paying a premium for their service when just down the road their neighbour has fixed line NBN and is paying much less for unlimited data. Rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that satellite customers still have to pay for a landline if they want a reliable voice service. This is essential in my community of Mayo, which encompasses some of the highest-risk bushfire zones in South Australia, and where we still have more than 130 mobile phone blackspots. Mobile phone technology is not part of the universal service guarantee, but our community considers mobile phones to be an essential service, and rightly so. We need to continue with the Mobile Black Spot Program and with pursuing bespoke solutions for different communities. Cherry Gardens has advocated for such a bespoke solution. I've been pleased to work with that community and the state Liberal MP, the member for Davenport, and the federal minister, the member for Parkes, to set up 4G equipment on the existing NBN tower. My Centre Alliance colleagues and I have been pleased to advocate for funding for this project and we look forward to its official launch.

I acknowledge and welcome the launch of the Sky Muster Plus service, which provides unmetered data for activities such as emailing and web browsing. This will help regional communities, which need to continually function in a digital world, especially if the teenager in the house uses up the household's data allowance on Netflix—and I have a couple of those in my house, so it goes down quickly! But this product doesn't compensate for the fact that far more households in Mayo are being placed on satellite technology than the national average of three per cent. I've been advised that 5,630 premises have been assigned satellite technology in my community, which represents more than five per cent of my community.

Our community is close to the city. Some can see the CBD, the outline of Adelaide, from their front porch, but they've been assigned satellite. One such neighbourhood was promised fibre to the node. Only two months ago they found that they were allocated satellite, because the technicians hit rock and it was going to be too expensive to dig. That is not acceptable. I have nearly 500 residents in Mylor who have been promised wireless NBN for more than two years now. Thanks to a deal falling through with a landowner over a tower site, they are now most likely going to get satellite. I say most likely, because they still can't get a decision out of NBN. I would like to take this opportunity to again urge NBN Co to make a decision for the Mylor community, prior to Christmas.

I have spoken to the regional services minister about my community's expectations. I acknowledge that NBN has been a boon for the many communities that have had to put up with poor and non-existent ADSL broadband. ADSL was so bad for one member of my community, in Bridgewater, that he doorknocked neighbours to ask if he could put antennas on their roofs. He now has NBN fixed line and runs a tech company from his home. I would like to thank NBN for coming to my community to host information sessions. I particularly thank Kym Morgan, who has been to every single one of the sessions, even when the community has naturally and rightfully been fired up and wanting to talk about NBN.

NBN has been something of a lottery for my community. Like all major infrastructure projects, I believe it should be built once and built well. There are issues in our community that we can work together on, and I'm sure that NBN will come to the table. We need to fix Mylor and we need to fix Crafers and we can do this; it's not above us.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:09

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