Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a lot of very angry constituents—I have thousands of very angry constituents who were let down by this Liberal government last week when it released the latest three-year rollout plan for the National Broadband Network. Despite the fact that a number of suburbs in my electorate have the poorest broadband internet rating in the country, they were completely left off the rollout map. Suburbs like Monash and Theodore, which have the lowest rating in the country for both availability and quality of broadband, were left off the rollout map. There is just one big, blank space. That means that these Canberrans will not have access to the NBN for at least three years. The lack of internet access is impeding their ability to maximise opportunities and realise their full potential in small business, in education and in civil society. They have again been let down by this Liberal government.

Under Labor, every home in the ACT would have had access to a world-class fibre-to-the-premises version of the NBN. The Prime Minister promised that his second-rate NBN would be built for $29.5 billion—that cost has almost doubled to $56 billion. He promised that his second-rate NBN would be rolled out to all homes and businesses by the end of 2016—now that has more than doubled to seven years. The NBN is just another broken promise from a Liberal government that has no vision for this country. Canberra, sign my petition. Let this Liberal government know: we want our NBN and we want it now. (Time expired)