Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge some of my constituents—Chiltern, Barnawartha, Rutherglen, Wahgunyah—up there in the gallery. Could my colleagues all wave to them! It is great to have you here, young people. Today I would like to respectfully request that the NBN Co give regional businesses advance notice of their rollouts. In my electorate of Indi in the past two weeks I have received 33 inquiries about telecommunications. Forty-two per cent of these require information on the NBN rollout. Business owners are truly frustrated at their inability to plan for further development and growth of their businesses, because there is no comprehensive time line for NBN rollouts. I will illustrate this with one example. Sally McGregor of Beechworth Sweet Company—and I am sure some of my young constituents know that is a destination place in Beechworth—contacted my office recently to inquire when she was getting a fixed NBN line to the business precinct in Beechworth. The time lines for the fixed line NBN rollout are so vague they are virtually meaningless to Sally's business. As result, she will be guessing instead of planning for her future telecommunication contract. NBN Co currently inform the nation of the anticipated rollout using an NBN rollout map. However, this map provides no further details on whether construction has begun or whether it is currently available. (Time expired)