David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Very happy to do that, Deputy Speaker. So this proposal, as I say, is the sort of thing you put forward when you're completely out of ideas. The government's proposal is to change the 2010 law related to the ownership of the NBN. Of course, that's law that came into place when Labor were in power, so this is Labor law that they are seeking to change. The Prime Minister back then, of course, was a cabinet minister—he was the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport—and Leader of the House, and it's his law that he's now seeking to change. He's now saying that he seeks urgently to change it, despite not acting on so many other areas of policy.

We haven't been briefed on this law as yet, Deputy Speaker. That's going to happen, I believe, later today, so we'll respond in the usual way once we've reviewed the legislation. But what this is about is an attempt to distract from the catastrophic failures of this government relating to many things, including the NBN. When we look at the NBN we see we have the quite extraordinary situation whereby the government has cheered on price rises for the NBN that have absolutely smashed Australian consumers. We saw the extraordinary situation earlier this year whereby six million families were hit by this government with massive NBN price rises. They were hit first in November 2023 and again in July 2024. The government may welcome those price rises. In fact, they do welcome the price rises, because the Minister for Communications infamously described the decision that led to those price rises as 'great news for consumers'. It's in the press release, so it's very hard to unwind now. The minister described as 'great news for consumers' price rises of 14 per cent for people who use NBN products. Do you know what else, Deputy Speaker? The people who have suffered the greatest price rises under this government are the people who are on the lowest cost, most affordable plans, the people who can afford those price rises the least.

What we saw back in November 2023 was an initial price increase. Then we saw, in July of 2024, another price increase. So, in total, there have been price increases of 11 to 14 per cent in just eight months under this government. The bottom line is: how are people supposed to pay for them? How are they supposed to find the money for those additional NBN price rises? But that's what they have to do, because under this government that is what has happened. This government should apologise for those price rises and for enthusiastically welcoming those price rises and describing them as great news for customers.

That is just one of many things that are going so terribly wrong when it comes to the NBN. Under this government, we have seen a collapse in the satellite business of the NBN. People are literally running away from the NBN product because it is so bad. That is what is happening, Deputy Speaker. When this government came into power there were about 120,000 people who subscribed to the NBN satellite product. Now the number is down below 85,000 people. The NBN has seen a massive loss of customers. At the same time, Starlink, the competitive satellite product, which had virtually no customers two years ago, now has 270,000 customers. What is the government's response? It's to convene a roundtable of academics to discuss the issue, because this is a government and this is a minister that never met a roundtable they didn't like. The atmosphere of indecision, malaise and failure to take action to stand up for Australian consumers is on very proud display when it comes to the NBN.

We're also seeing a further deterioration in the financial position of NBN. In the last 12 months, NBN's cash outflow was negative $1.4 billion, $300 million worse than the negative $1.1 billion result in the previous financial year under this government. So things are getting worse and worse. The prices are going up. Satellite customers are leaving.

Do you know who else is leaving the NBN, Deputy Speaker Claydon? It's people who live in existing homes—what they call brownfields customers. People who live in normal homes are leaving the NBN. One of the big reasons they're leaving the NBN is that prices have gone up by so much under this government, and this is happening in the middle of the Albanese government's cost-of-living crisis. So it's not only the NBN prices that are going up; everything's going up.

Since the election, people have seen the cost of health go up by more than 10 per cent, the cost of education by more than 11 per cent, the cost of food by more than 12 per cent and the cost of electricity by 14 per cent. Housing's gone up by 13 per cent. Rents have gone up by 16 per cent. Financial products and insurance have gone up by 17 per cent. Gas has gone up by 33 per cent. Fruit and vegetable prices have seen their highest rise since December 2022.

So what the government should be doing is urgently bringing forward measures to address the cost-of-living crisis that Australians are dealing with at the moment. But do they do that? No, they don't. They don't do that. They don't bring forward something to address that issue. They bring forward something to address an issue related to the ownership of NBN, despite basically never having spoken about the issue in parliament in the entire two years that the government has been in position. It is an extraordinary failure.

If you look at the communications portfolio, it is notable that the government seeks to bring on a debate about this issue, but what about the media bargaining code? What about the fact that Australian media companies have been absolutely smashed by Meta's withdrawal from paying for the intellectual property of Australian media? On 1 March, 7½ months ago, the Minister for Communications said that she and her colleague the Assistant Treasurer had made their expectations clear to the media companies—that this was just unacceptable and that the government would be taking firm action. That was 7½ months ago. What's happened since? Nothing, except—I'll tell you what has happened—large-scale job losses in the media industry. We've seen very substantial job losses. The minister might not think that's important, but I do. I do think it's important. We've seen very substantial job losses at Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, Associated Press and News Corp, and those groups have all made it very clear that a key part of the reason for those job losses is Meta's refusal to pay under the news media bargaining code administered by this minister.

So does the minister bring a proposal to this government to actually solve the problem? No. The government doesn't do anything on that issue, which is so fundamental to the Australian media sector. Despite the clear powers that exist in the news media bargaining code, the government does absolutely nothing about that but seeks to artificially bring on a debate about the ownership of NBN, despite never talking about the issue in two years. It's kind of sad, transparent and pathetic as a political tactic.

That's why Australians have worked this government out, and they've worked this Prime Minister out. They've worked out that he doesn't stand for anything, that he's weak, that he's indecisive and that he's presiding over a cost-of-living crisis that is smashing the average Australian family, as well as record insolvencies. So, the human cost of this government's inaction is very disturbing. That's what the government should be trying to address. But the government is instead putting on a confected display to seek to have a debate about the ownership of the NBN, despite the fact that, back in 2021, the government said that the NBN would be kept in public hands.

This is not an issue that is new, not an issue that is urgent but an issue that is designed simply to bring forward a political debate. But that's not going to prevail, because people are smarter than that. People have seen through this government. They know that this government is desperate. They know that this government is weak, that it's indecisive, that it's presiding over some of the worst cost-of-living conditions Australians have ever seen. And rather than respond to that, rather than bring forward something to deal with these measures, the government does this.

You have to ask the Minister for Communications: why doesn't the minister bring forward anything about gambling advertising?

Government members interjecting—

It's a very serious question. Why doesn't the Minister for Communications address this issue? I mean, she can't say she's not aware it's an issue of public concern. She can't say it's not an issue that worries Australians. And she can't say it's an issue that she's not had plenty of time to address. But she can't bring forward anything on that. She brings forward a piece of legislation that is not urgent in order to simply have a confected political debate.

We'll review that legislation once we've been briefed on it, but what we will never, ever do is behave in the fashion of this government in presiding over a shocking cost-of-living crisis, of being weak and indecisive, of failing the Australian people and of putting politics before the substance of assisting Australians. That's something we will never do. This government should and must be held to account for its shocking failures.

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