Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Canning electorate is stuck in NBN limbo. In fact, this limbo was referred to in an article, by Geoff Thompson of the ABC, entitled 'Thousands to be stuck in NBN limbo'. Stuck in this limbo is exactly where many of my constituents are. While the government presses ahead with its white elephant, the NBN, Telstra is increasingly adjusting its policy to encompass temporary telecommunications measures while people wait for the NBN.

Telstra's universal service obligation, or USO, states it will provide all Australians with reasonable access on an equitable basis to a standard telephone service—a minimal service. This means that Telstra, at its discretion, can provide a mobile phone service instead of a fixed line service. This is the same for internet services.

Many of my constituents have said that, unfortunately, the mobile service Telstra is offering is substandard. In fact, Telstra has downgraded the Australian Broadband Guarantee, which was designed to make broadband services available to rural consumers at speeds comparable with those in metro areas. It will eventually be replaced by the NBN and an interim satellite solution. The interim satellite solution is regarded by wireless broadband providers as technically inferior to current wireless services, which are already labelled as unreliable. The other issue is that when they are forced onto wireless, consumers are being forced to pay more.

People in the suburbs of Piara Waters, Harrisdale, Forrestdale, Waroona and Darling Downs have been complaining they cannot get basic telephone and ADSL services. Parusu Ramakrishnan, of Harrisdale, and Daryll Niemack and Karen Tonge, of Piara Waters, have all complained about Telstra's interim wireless phone and internet services. After I contacted Telstra CEO, David Thodey, on their behalf they luckily got some sort of fixed line service, but have now been told there are no more ADSL ports available at the Forrestdale exchange, where they would need to connect to. This is very interesting, because this is a product of Sol Trujillo's reign at Telstra and the fact that he fell out with both sides of government—as I have mentioned before. This side of government decided it would not play ball with Telstra and put in its own NBN service. As a result, people in my electorate are being greatly hurt by this.

I have many examples. In the new estates, particularly around Piara Waters and Harrisdale, Telstra obviously is not going to put in optic fibre—at the minimum it is going to put in copper wire. The interim mobile phones certainly do not provide ADSL, and we are told the NBN will not come for up to eight years. How does a new estate like that get service? People want to operate their businesses from home, people want to communicate and kids want to get online for their school studies. This is out of order and a dereliction of duty by the government and Telstra in relation to my constituents.

In a bizarre situation, Jeremy Coleman from Tilling Timbers, a business at the Forrestdale Business Park, has had to set up an elaborate and very expensive $36,000 communications substitute, after being promised by Telstra for 18 months that communications would be installed. We have this huge industrial estate where the substructure is in the ground, but there is nothing in it. There is no wire or cable and, as a result, they have to have a microwave link to the R&I building in Perth, some 30 km away, to get telephone and ADSL at a cost of $36,000. Tonight, in the House, the Carey Baptist College told me they are doing the same. Even though they have some service they now have to set up a microwave link for their school. That is not good enough. Many people in the Canning electorate are being held up and have been told that they could be for up to eight years.

After talking to Mr Thodey—thank goodness, I did not have to deal with the state office of Telstra—he said that as an interim measure they would put in a copper wire network. It is only interim. It is not good enough in the modern age, and the government has a lot to answer for in relation to this very expensive national broadband network that it is inflicting on the Australian public. (Time expired)