Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024. When I listen to the member for Berowra, it's almost as if those nine terrible years of the coalition government never happened. Their policy was to demolish the NBN. In 2010, they actually put out a policy that poured scorn on the NBN.

Ross Pratt, a local businessman up in Esk, saw me at the Toogoolawah State High School awards night and raised an issue concerning the future of the NBN under the coalition. He said: 'The NBN was a transformative initiative for Australia's IT sector. Unfortunately, under the previous communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, later Prime Minister, the project was mismanaged, resulting in a far inferior product. The decision to rely on outdated copper cabling already beyond its life span was shortsighted. This choice burdened taxpayers with unnecessary costs and delivered a network that is struggling to meet the country's needs.' I say amen to that, Ross. You absolutely got it in a country area like that. Esk, of course, would have had fibre to the premises, being a country town, but those opposite refused to go ahead with fibre to the premises. I'm going to give a bit of a history lesson because the member for Berowra needs a history lesson after that sort of speech.

The Rudd government announced it would bypass the existing copper network. Do you remember that word 'copper'? The coalition put their faith in copper. We said we would bypass the copper network and construct a new national network combining fibre-to-the-premises, fixed-wireless and satellite technologies. The fibre-to-the-premises rollout planned to reach approximately 93 per cent of premises in Australia by June 2021. Unfortunately, we lost the 2013 election. Fibre to the premises was to replace the copper network but the coalition, of course, never agreed to it.

In 2010, the coalition took their communications policy to that election and it was described as ‘undercooked’. They pledged just $6 billion and were going to wind up the NBN and sell it off. That was their policy in 2010. I remember Andrew Robb, the finance minister at the time, saying that the Labor government was betting the house on a single technology. They backed it up in 2013 with then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, and then opposition spokesperson for communications, Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull was given the responsibility 'to demolish the NBN'. Those opposite argued that the demand for telecommunication services would not be very significant. They poured scorn on the idea, ran a few videos, and that was basically what they thought. That was the degree of digital understanding and literacy of those opposite had during their time in opposition. Then, when they got into government, they announced the same thing.

In 2013, the coalition announced that the NBN would deliver a mix of old and new technologies, a multitechnology mix, and Malcolm Turnbull was talking about this all the time. They completely botched it up. It blew out. We ended up with an inferior product, as Ross Pratt, the local businessman who works in this area of computing in Esk said, and we on this side had to fix it up. Just before the last election, those opposite realised they had failed, so they announced a bit more money to start rolling out fibre to the premises. So I won't cop any lectures and sermons from those opposite on the NBN.

This legislation is about making sure the NBN is owned by the Australian people. We want to make sure they have fast, reliable and affordable internet now and into the future. Whether you are in Esk, where Ross is working, or in Ipswich in my electorate, we want to make sure students have the capacity to access the information they need for their assignments and exams, we want businesses to run productively and we want videoconferencing for patients to receive telehealth services. That is critical for regional and rural areas.

I have always been bemused and befuddled by the LNP members in Queensland, who know very well telecommunications are so critical to rural Queensland. Yet when they got in, they kowtowed to the far right of the Liberal Party and decided they were not going to go and do it. But what got me was that the bloke who claimed he invented the internet, Malcolm Turnbull, was also the bloke who tried to destroy the NBN. We on this side are not going to let any of that happen. We are not. We want to make sure the NBN is owned by those people to whom it belongs—the Australian public.

We have done a number of things. First, we have invested $2.4 billion to expand the full-fibre NBN access to 1.5 million additional premises, including 660,000 in rural and regional communities. Those opposite did not do any of that when they were in, none of it, yet they purport to adequately represent those communities. Second, from September next year, we are boosting download speeds by up to five times the current speeds at no extra wholesale cost. Thirdly, we are rolling out more fibre in the fixed-line network, upgrading the fixed-wireless network and planning for the future needs of regional communities like mine. We are keeping NBN in public hands and we are going to lock in an affordable and accessible high speed. It is critical infrastructure. It was at the time the biggest infrastructure program any Australian government had done. The NBN is so important, reaching over 12.4 million premises across the country.

New figures out clearly show more than nine million homes and businesses are now able to access the fastest broadband speeds on the NBN. This is an important milestone. It's important because faster speeds provide a world-class experience for consumers, whether they're connected for work, study or entertainment. We know the average data usage in Australia has increased 10 times over the past 10 years, with the average home now hosting 22 internet-connected or smart devices. That's why it's possible to do this; it's critical to do it. Research shows the NBN has delivered $122 billion in economic uplift since 2022 and supported the creation of 169,000 jobs, the equivalent of a 1.3 per cent increase in our labour force.

At the time, communities like mine told us that the job of upgrading the NBN was not complete, and I got that just last week when I was at the Somerset Regional Council meeting with the mayor and the councillors up there. Australians simply don't trust the coalition not to flog off the NBN as was their policy previously in opposition, as they did with Telstra. They just don't. This bill will ensure the NBN continues to deliver to all Australians, providing digital inclusion and price certainty for industry and consumers. We're delivering on our election commitments, including in my electorate. As Australia's connectivity needs continue to grow, we're going to need faster and better NBN. We're keeping the NBN in public hands because we want to make sure that we look after consumers. A monopoly power and private hands is not the way to go.

I'm going to give a quick overview of the bill. The bill will amend the National Broadband Network Companies Act to ensure that ongoing public ownership is required. The bill incorporates that because we're wanting to make it clear that the NBN preserved in public ownership is an explicit requirement, and it will remove the current conditions for terminating government ownership by repealing part 3 of the act. The Albanese government's committed to keeping NBN in public ownership already through an updated statement of expectations issued in December 2022, confirming the government's commitment and policy position.

The bill makes a commitment in terms of a legislative framework. The bill removes existing legislative conditions which would allow the privatisation of the company. Ongoing government ownership of the NBN will keep wholesale broadband prices more affordable for consumers than if the company was in private ownership. The government will support a strong regulatory oversight of the NBN and a special access undertaking with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to cap wholesale prices. What's more, we're delivering the fibre and fixed wireless upgrades we took to the 2024 election on time and on budget, which is effectively a first for any government in this area. This is very important for my electorate in Queensland.

Queensland is the most decentralised mainland state, with about half our population living outside the capital of Brisbane and south-east corner with a lot of regional and remote communities including in my electorate. My electorate is both outer suburban and regional and takes in the majority of Ipswich, one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, the Karana Downs region and the rural Somerset region including rural Ipswich as well. For my constituents, having access to fast, reliable quality internet is not a luxury; it's a 21st-century critical capacity and necessity. This is precisely why, before the election, we committed to investing $2.4 billion to expand that fibre access I referred to.

Thanks to that commitment, large parts of Ipswich, the Karana Downs area and the Somerset region as well as surrounding areas like the South Burnett and the Lockyer Valley are now able to join the 21st century and upgrade to full-fibre broadband connection. Indeed, more than 34,000 families and small businesses in Blair can now access superfast internet thanks to our strong investment in the network. These long-suffering families and small businesses have had to settle for the coalition's dodgy copper network until now. In contrast, world-class fibre broadband means faster upload and download speeds and a more reliable connection.

I will just make this point: if you were to go from Karana Downs to the north all the way down towards Ripley and right through the middle of Ipswich, which is one of the most densely concentrated parts of Queensland with a population of 260,000 people, under the coalition, you wouldn't get fibre to the premises; you would get fibre to the node. It's just slightly better than ADSL 2, all through the middle of Ipswich. It goes to show the contempt the coalition had for my community. In contrast, we are getting fibre to the premises in these areas. We're committing to making sure that so many parts of my electorate that didn't get access to it are upgraded. Areas that can't access full fibre network upgrades will get satellite and will transition from satellite to fixed wireless for the first time, thanks to a $480 million investment to improve broadband connectivity in the bush. As part of this, 14 locations in rural Ipswich and surrounding areas, like the Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim, and 13 locations in the Somerset region—more than 20 per cent of the total 120,000 premises that are eligible—will be able to move to a fixed wireless connection by December this year. This means fast and more consistent speeds for families and small businesses in these rural areas, as well as access to high-speed plans. We've also installed a backup NBN Sky Muster satellite service in Kilcoy in the upper Somerset region in the northern end of my electorate to boost internet quality in the area. This vital infrastructure will help build this community and help them stay connected during a natural disaster, which is so critical because all these country towns get cut off during floods. It could be the difference between life and death, and it certainly is the difference in terms of the viability of businesses.

Our government is working across the NBN network to move from fixed line to fixed wireless and satellite technologies to deliver quality communications infrastructure in my community and in the various country towns across my electorate. We're delivering on our plan for a better NBN. It's essential for the positive vision my constituents voted for at the last election. As I said, last week, I met with the Somerset Regional Council, who were very interested to know how telecommunications upgrades were progressing. We wanted to put fibre to the premises in all these country towns, and we aspire to doing that. They were part of the thousand rural communities and country towns that had fibre to the premises taken away by those opposite when they won the election in 2013. So what we're doing here is a game changer for our regions, and we're supporting it. We know small businesses start up in these areas. After that meeting with the council that I referred to, I went to the Brisbane Valley Roasters in Esk where I grabbed a takeaway coffee and talked to a few people there, including one of the local police officers. We've seen people for the first time being able to access internet speeds that allow them to study online. That's why Ross Pratt in Esk is so correct with his computer knowledge and his business in that community.

This is a nation-building investment, ensuring that more people in Ipswich and the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area get access to the full opportunities the digital economy has to offer. So, in terms of hearing speeches from the member for Berowra and others, I say that they should have a look at history and at the failures of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, during their nine years, to get it right. They should look at the blowouts, their addiction to anything other than fibre to the premises and their obsession with copper. They may as well have been committed to a Model T Ford, in terms of digital technology. That's what those opposite were addicted to. They really failed monumentally. There's a massive divide between us and them in this area. They completely and utterly failed during their nine years, so for them to give us lectures and sermons on our perceived or alleged failing is a complete waste of time and a denial of the fact and the reality and, certainly, the experience of history.

Debate adjourned.

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