Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently hosted a communications forum for residents of Corunna Downs and Mount Crosby, two suburbs in my electorate which have suffered from a historic lack of infrastructure investment, particularly in the area of telecommunications. The forum was oversubscribed, with a capacity crowd of more than 100 residents. I am grateful to the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, the Hon. Paul Fletcher, and his staff for securing the attendance of representatives from Optus, Telstra and nbn co, who also spoke one on one with residents and fielded questions about the issues that they are facing with internet and telephone availability. Nbn co spoke about the rollout of the network and the benefits that it will deliver for residents in areas where a reliable internet connection is not currently available. Local residents raised a number of issues: the common themes being a lack of mobile phone reception and the widespread lack of fast and reliable broadband internet.

I accept that in many cases the availability of mobile phone reception is subject to the geography of the area, and commercial telephone service providers are not always in a position to install mobile phone towers on every street corner. What I cannot and will not accept is that in the 21st century, in 2015, a suburb just 25 kilometres from the Brisbane CBD is forced to suffer broadband internet at speeds below those of much of the developing world—that is if they can actually access it at all. In some cases residents cannot even access a fixed telephone service.

The Commonwealth government, or more accurately the Australian taxpayer, pays Telstra $253 million every year under the terms of the USO—universal service obligation—to provide a reliable standard telephone service with good voice reception. They are also supposed to maintain their network. Unfortunately for residents in low-density areas, such as Corunna Downs and Mount Crosby, the obligation is technology neutral, which somehow allows Telstra to avoid its obligation to maintain the fixed copper network by providing residents with a mobile phone even in areas where mobile reception either does not exist or at best is unreliable. As a consequence, most residents cannot access a reliable ADSL service.

The current USO, which is not due to expire until 2032, was a Labor Party special. In conjunction with the $9 billion definitive agreements between Telstra and nbn co, essentially a pay-off by the former Labor government to Telstra to junk its copper and HFC networks without causing a farce, the USO fails the customer and mugs the taxpayer twice—once on the way through with Telstra and then again when nbn co assumes responsibility for the network. Many residents reported at the forum that they had witnessed or been advised by Telstra technicians that the copper network managed by Telstra was in a state of utter disrepair and that ageing and corroded copper lines had, on multiple occasions, been re-fused. One resident was told by a Telstra technician that the line was, in technical terms, 'cactus'. But either this was not reported back to Telstra or when it was it clearly fell on deaf ears.

In early 2017, nbn co would inherit this ageing and unmaintained copper network and would then become liable for its maintenance and responsible for its performance. Indeed, they explained to justifiably angry residents that the reason for the delay in the rollout in this area was the need to rebuild the local exchange. For the amount of money that Telstra has been paid and continues to be paid, like any business or commercial arrangement, they should be required to hand over their network in good working condition or pay for the cost of the repair work.

When it came to large-scale public infrastructure projects, the Rudd Labor government was a diabolical concoction of grandiosity and incompetence. As a consequence of this mismanagement, many residents in my electorate are without any internet access while they wait for the NBN. I will continue to advocate on behalf of the residents of Corunna Downs and Mount Crosby to make sure they get a fair deal from Telstra.