Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the member for Wentworth and I went on a broadband policy tour of my electorate of Swan to meet residents and businesses. We felt a bit like David Attenborough looking for a wild creature out in the wild west of Western Australia that we know is very scarce. It is that scarce, we could not find the NBN nor could we find the fibre in my electorate. If you look at the website—

Mr Lyons interjecting—

I hear the member for Bass. I know he is lucky enough to have found the NBN in regions of Tasmania. We did not find the NBN but we did find many constituents disillusioned by the broken Labor broadband promises in my electorate from the last election and positively enthused and receptive to Malcolm Turnbull, the member for Wentworth, and the coalition's policy of rapid rollout of fibre-to-the-node NBN that would be delivered faster and to areas that need it most first.

I am sure there are many members in this place that remember the great fanfare of the Labor broadband promises made before the last election. In my electorate of Swan, particularly, the Labor candidate trumpeted the fact that we were going to have the commencement of broadband in the second quarter of 2011. There has been no commencement as yet. There are plenty of signs on the website saying it has been commenced but it has not commenced. They were out there saying to everyone in Victoria Park, 'We want your vote. We are going to give you broadband in the second quarter of 2011.' It just did not happen. That promise was broken well over 12 months ago. Today not one piece of fibre has been laid in Victoria Park. The residents of the trial site are becoming increasingly frustrated about the lack of delivery from this government and from the NBN.

Government members interjecting—

It is great to hear the members interjecting because they have got a lot to hang their hats on about all the performances of all the schemes they have implemented since they were elected in 2007. Let us remind them about pink batts, schools, BER and all those sorts of things. We have seen the inability of the government to deliver simple schemes over the last four years—

Government members interjecting—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am having trouble hearing the member for Swan.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and they are clearly struggling with the NBN. There have already been massive delays, missed deadlines and broken promises. The losers are the people of my electorate of Swan as well as the people of Australia, who are still waiting for the first house to receive better broadband services.

The question has to be asked: if they still have not managed to connect a small trial site in a small part of one of 30 suburbs in my electorate, what hope is there for the broadband black spots in Swan, out in Cloverdale and in Kewdale which have not yet been shortlisted for connection? I know a constituent in Cloverdale who has been told he simply cannot connect to broadband as he is in a black spot. The City of Belmont put in a submission for broadband to the NBN that was rated highly by the office of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy before the last election, but it was not selected and to this day it has not been shortlisted. The black spots in Swan also have not been addressed.

The residents and businesses enjoyed meeting the member for Wentworth and were very receptive to the coalition's FTTN policy, given the delays and broken promises that this government has presided over. I commend the member for Wentworth for work he has done in developing a policy that will be rolled out faster and, importantly, will first meet the needs of the areas that need it most. The coalition is in favour of comprehensive high-speed broadband that can be delivered to all Australians, and that is the policy the member for Wentworth has produced. Certainly the residents and businesses we visited in the sixth Vic-01 trial site are fast coming to the conclusion that the only way to get change and action is to change the government.

I understand it is the government's intention to shortlist another area of Victoria Park next week. My suggestion to the government is to stop the spin and start delivering. There have been so many announcements of new areas, yet still no fibre has been laid for the first area announced in 2010. Stop the spin and start delivering—that is all the residents want, what they expected and what they were promised, but it is not happening. In Bentley the frustration was summarised in an email I received on Tuesday from one of the businesses in my electorate frustrated at the inability to connect to ADSL or to supposed broadband:

It is quite obvious that there is built up and widespread frustration in the community about the lack of average broadband services.

…   …   …

The other unbelievable fact, and this is a great opportunity for someone in Parliament to bring it to the Governments attention, that a prime industrial area in the heart of an Australian capital city does NOT have access to proper broadband and, in some cases, has to send its employees off site to access suitable services!

So, Bill, I have mentioned that for you, and the residents of Victoria Park wait for the broadband to arrive. (Time expired)