Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The NBN is delivering for my Northern Tasmanian community. In a rural and regional electorate such as the electorate of Bass, the NBN is necessary for ensuring our local businesses, from SMEs to larger companies, can conduct their business. It allows them to compete on a national and international level. Local business leaders have embraced new technologies to foster productivity and growth, with programs such as the Business Fibre Initiative helping businesses innovate and grow through increasing access to and affordability of business-grade fibre.

Businesses like Definium Technologies, in Invermay, are benefiting from the NBN's Enterprise Ethernet. Definium Technologies is an Australian ICT and embedded software company located just outside of Launceston's CBD. They specialise in producing custom hardware and software solutions for businesses both in Australia and overseas. Led by CEO Mike Cruse, who grew up in Launceston before moving to Melbourne and then to Silicon Valley, Definium has designed and manufactured a large range of solutions from low-power wireless sensors and communications gateways through to industrial control systems. It is a fantastic company doing innovative things, and it could perhaps not have set up in our community were it not for access to the NBN.

It's not just small business, be it tech or otherwise, benefiting from our government's rollout of the NBN. In December last year I was pleased to join the state Minister for Education and Training, Jeremy Rockliff, at our local Kings Meadows High School to celebrate a partnership that's delivering high-speed broadband to schools across the state, including in Northern Tasmania. Through a new cooperative deal signed last year between the Tasmanian state government and TasmaNet, more students across our island state have access to the high-speed NBN services, improving the quality of educational services, particularly in some of our most regional communities. Through improved broadband services, our students can benefit from greater access to online services and more intensive and immersive online interaction, resulting in higher-quality education outcomes. Pleasingly, around 59 schools have now signed up for the Enterprise Ethernet, the NBN's highest-quality business-grade service, with another five to come online next month.

I'm somewhat bemused by Labor's attack on the government, given it missed every rollout target it set for itself when in government. As pointed out by the member for Barker, the NBN was a complete disaster under their control, with just 51,000 users connected in six years—an average of just 8,500 users a year over six years. Additionally, under Labor it cost an incredible $6 billion for the NBN to pass just three per cent of Australian premises. Who could forget when contractors downed their tools and stopped construction due to the epic mismanagement of those on the other side? Under the management of this government, today nearly eight million premises are connected, approximately 11.9 million premises are ready to connect and more than 99 per cent of all premises in Australia are able to connect, and 70 per cent of homes and businesses are on plans that are 50 megabits per second or higher. It puts Labor's figures to shame a little bit, doesn't it?

In September last year the minister for communications, Paul Fletcher, announced a $4½ billion NBN network investment plan that will give up to 75 per cent of fixed-line premises across regional and metropolitan Australia access to ultra-fast broadband by 2023 via a continuation of the multitechnology model of this government—an investment which will benefit many communities, including mine.

Our government has achieved the NBN efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of Labor's gold-plated approach that would have cost billions and left millions of Australians behind during the pandemic. It's the approach of our government that ensured NBN was there for our communities when they needed it. If the NBN had not been rolled out with the speed and purpose it has been under this government, using all available technologies, millions of premises throughout Australia might have languished on ADSL speeds of just eight megabits per second on average or endured lockdown with no internet service at all. When the pandemic hit, it was the efforts of this government that ensured our businesses, our homes and our schools could stay connected when it was needed more than ever.

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