Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking today on this bill, the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024. I am very pleased because it is vital that the NBN stays in public hands. We are very much committed to do that. This bill will amend the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 to ensure ongoing public ownership of the NBN. The bill incorporates new wording to make it clear that the NBN is to be preserved in public ownership as an explicit requirement, and that's what's important about this bill.

We, the Albanese Labor government, have made a rock-solid commitment to keeping the NBN in public ownership. Of course, the fibre and fixed-wireless upgrades we took to the 2022 election are being delivered on time and on budget, which is effectively a first for any government in terms of how we are rolling out those improvements. Australians are now taking up fibre upgrades in record numbers, and this is vitally important. It leads to a much better user experience and customer experience, and less fault as well. There's a lot of innovation happening, particularly in terms of satellite technology, which really does have the ability to transform connectivity for all Australians.

In regional and rural areas like mine, especially, issues surrounding the upgrading of the NBN are at the forefront of the minds of so many people. There are so many reasons we require that. For the vast number of wonderful small businesses that we have in my region and in other parts of regional Australia, having connectivity is at the heart of them functioning as a small business. Of course, we need that connectivity for educational purposes as well. For so many years under the coalition we didn't have that. It meant so many businesses struggled. It meant many people couldn't access those educational resources.

People need access to the NBN for personal reasons, and we desperately need to have access to connectivity in times of natural disasters. In my region we had the devastating floods of 2022 when all technology wasn't available. It was an incredibly difficult time. We've made some major investments since that time, in terms of having equipment and technology there for increased connectivity during natural disasters. That is absolutely important. Our government understands that we need to do all that we can to ensure we can access that technology in times of a natural disaster because problems with connectivity added to the incredible distress and devastation that we were feeling during the floods of 2022. We have made a commitment to making sure that there is more capacity for connectivity when we are in natural disasters.

We have said many times that we strongly believe the NBN needs to stay in full government ownership, to support that ongoing upgrade to the network and also—very importantly—to ensure the ongoing regulatory oversight of NBN wholesale pricing to keep broadband affordable for Australians. That will only happen if we ensure that it remains within public ownership.

Having access, particularly affordable access, to the NBN is incredibly important for a whole host of reasons, as I mentioned earlier. We want to make sure that stays in place. It is also essential to deliver the strategy for a greater and more connected Australia, including rolling out more fibre in the fixed line network, planning for the transition to next-generation satellites and modernising universal service obligations. There are a whole variety of reasons why we need to ensure that NBN ownership stays in public hands and to ensure that happens effectively and efficiently.

Our cybersecurity and national security imperatives naturally require a massive government oversight as well, and that can only be done through government ownership. We've said we wouldn't support any future sale of NBN, particularly if it were to involve some sort of foreign ownership. That could potentially raise very serious national sovereignty and security risks. So there are a whole host of reasons why the NBN should remain within public hands.

As I've said, the NBN is critical national infrastructure, and we have maintained it. We need to have it in place. That's why we introduced that. Many years ago, we knew how important it was to roll that out so that people could have access to the NBN. It was established by a Labor government because of the failure of a former Liberal-National government to foresee a plan for the digital transformation of the economy. You do have to plan well in advance for what is required to transform our economy—particularly for those regional and rural areas that continue to rely on the NBN for important day-to-day activities and business activities—and, more broadly, to provide that security and service during natural disasters.

We know that the sale of Telstra under the then Howard government was a complete disaster, and it really showed how the Liberal Party and particularly the National Party sold out many regional communities. There were initially some guarantees of service delivery, and none of that eventuated—none of it. People remind me of that every day. They remember when it was sold off by the Howard government and the implications for the regions.

Debate interrupted.

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