Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to support the member for Kennedy's excellent amendments. I would add to the member for Calare's observation about the Great Dividing Range. There is one Australia on the east of the Great Dividing Range and there's another Australia on the west of the Great Dividing Range. I'd say to the member for Calare that there's another dividing range, and that's Bass Strait. This is a very significant issue for Tasmanians. Many Tasmanians live in rural and remote areas, and they also have great difficulties accessing reliable NBN. So this isn't just an issue for the bush; it's equally, I think, an issue for Tasmania and Tasmanians.

We have small settlements right around the strait, right around the coast, with very small settlements on the west coast. I often go and holiday at a little place called Southport, at the end of the Huon Valley, an hour and a half's drive south of Hobart. That's as remote a part of the country as you could imagine, but a lot of people travel there. They go down there to holiday. We get a lot of tourists going down there. We get a lot of international business going down there. And people die down there because they don't have reliable access to the NBN or at least the phone system.

I think this amendment that the member for Kennedy has moved is sensible and entirely supportable, and I'd be very surprised if he doesn't end up having it carried on the voices—because who could possibly argue with the idea that there should be a legal obligation on the NBN to provide affordable access no matter where you live in the country? Now, if I'd said that maybe as recently as a decade ago, I probably would have been put in my place by technical experts saying, 'For heaven's sake, Australia is a continent. It's just impossible.' Wherever you live, you should be able to pick up the phone or get on the internet. But the fact is this is 2024. The technology has existed for years. The only reason some people in this country don't have affordable and reliable access to the internet is decisions by government not to ensure it happens. That's the only reason there are people in this country that don't have affordable or reliable access to the NBN, including a great many Tasmanians right throughout the state of Tasmania.

I call on the government and I call on the opposition to get behind this amendment. It's not good enough, I say to the government, that they're 'working on it'. I agree with the member for Kennedy. That's just a line we throw around in this place. It means 'we're kicking the can down the road, and hopefully you'll go away and stop mentioning it'.

So good on you, Member for Kennedy. I reckon this is the time to get behind this amendment. The guarantee doesn't have to be in place tomorrow. There can be a reasonable timeline. We could give Australians that certainty, no matter where they live in this country, for safety, for access to government services, for access to banking, to be able to run a business these days—wherever they need to live in the country, particularly in rural and remote areas and right throughout Tasmania. It is 2024, after all.

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