Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I lament the news I have received that there will be no new suburbs in the electorate of Lalor to receive the NBN in the new roll-out maps released by the minister for Communications this week. The map has just been released and it shows our area will be stuck with poor broadband quality and access until at least 2016. This is despite Minister Turnbull promising that areas that have the poorest broadband, like Point Cook, Hoppers Crossing, Little River and Laverton, will get the NBN first. In addition, there will be large areas of Werribee, Wyndham Vale, Tarneit, Truganina, and Werribee South that will also miss out. The NBN provision that is available in Lalor was commenced under the previous Labor government. This is very disappointing, especially when you consider that, in one of the minister's first speeches as the Minister for Communications, he said:

Addressing these underserviced areas first is a key objective of our NBN policy.

He has now broken that promise, and our area is paying the price for the Abbott government's lack of commitment to the promises that they made.

This government has also broken other promises that every Australian would have access to the NBN by 2016. That is clearly not the case now, despite Prime Minister Abbott saying that under the coalition by 2016 there would be minimum download speeds of 25 megabytes:

… we will deliver a minimum of 25 megabits … by the end of our first term.

Clearly, the maps that have been released for the electorate of Lalor are saying that that is not the case. I would say that that is now another broken promise.

This is really disappointing news. It is disappointing news for families. It is disappointing news for business, because in those new areas in that growth corridor in Point Cook, Tarneit and Truganina there are new businesses and families now moving into an area that is an absolute internet black hole. We have some people on one side of the street whose developers have paid and worked with Telstra to put it through; and others who live on the other side of the street with absolutely no internet access at all.

Minister Turnbull made several promises about fixing this and now we find our electorate has no new areas on the NBN rollout. As I have gone round the caucus in the last few days, I note that mine is not the only Labor electorate that is having no new NBN rollout, having no new suburbs included. The member for Adelaide just informed me as she was leaving that the same will be said for the electorate of Adelaide. I suggest strongly that Minister Turnbull relook at his maps and start thinking about the people who need this most. Kids who want to do their homework and who are reliant upon the internet need the NBN now.