Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a mess this government has created when it comes to fast-speed broadband and the NBN. Before the election we knew exactly what was going to happen in the Bendigo electorate. We were on the map. The greenfield sites in our part of the world were starting to get the broadband.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And then you got elected!

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Then this government got elected and knocked Bendigo off the map, and now we do not know what is going to happen. In fact, the map of who has access to the NBN is exactly the same today as it was before the last election. And if anybody can see this, we are seeing a couple of hundred homes in Bendigo that have access to the NBN—that is all, in the electorate of Bendigo.

We are the second largest regional city in Victoria, and yet we do not have a decent NBN plan. We are not on the map, when it comes to this government, about getting fast-speed broadband. This map has not changed for two years. This government's broken promises to people in regional Australia and the people in Bendigo will not be forgiven by these businesses and these communities.

But do you know what we have got in Bendigo? We have got a wonderful advertising campaign by this government on their ability to access the NBN! Our local radio likes it; our local papers like it; our local TV likes it—this government is spending an absolute fortune advertising the NBN that is not available to the very people they are advertising it to. Talk about a shocking example of cart before the horse! This government is a joke when it comes to the NBN, and it needs to restore Labor's original plan.