Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015. It gives me the opportunity to highlight the fact that access to high-quality, real broadband is one of the most fundamental issues facing the electorate of Greenway. Indeed, it is probably the single biggest issue on which I receive unsolicited representations from residents in all parts of the electorate. As I warned prior to the last election, the electorate of Greenway has been divided into an electorate of NBN haves and have-nots. We have those fortunate people who managed to obtain the real NBN—Labor's fibre-to-the-home network—prior to the last election and we have other areas of the electorate where people literally look across the road and see people who do not have broadband and certainly do not have the NBN.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight a few matters. First, I point out not only how potent this issue is but also the fact that residents understand why broadband is important. They understand many of the technical issues that we probably think are beyond them. They are savvy people, and I can tell you as well that they know they are not getting the promise made by this Prime Minister when he was Minister for Communications. They know they were promised to have minimum speeds delivered by the end of 2016. That promise was made by the current Prime Minister in 2013. It did not even last the year. That was one of the first promises to be broken by this government.

I want to take the opportunity to highlight a few other issues, in particular how lack of affordable and reliable broadband is impacting on small business, the changing nature of small business and why more than ever we need to get this investment in real infrastructure done, and the importance of recognising that innovation cannot just be talk. It needs to have the underlying fundamentals of infrastructure going along with it.

Lastly, I want to talk about some of the lived experiences of my constituents, be it in small business, school or their home use, and the level of frustration at this issue and in particular the level of frustration with the government who came in here and, just as with the last speaker, said Labor had botched this job and they were going to do it better. That was more than 2½ years ago. They completely failed to live up to their promise.

I am not surprised that in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald we see the headline 'Turnbull's NBN plan in crisis'. There has never been a clearer example of this Prime Minister and this government being all talk and no action. Apparently he invented the internet. Apparently he was given the task by then Prime Minister Abbott to demolish or destroy the NBN. Effectively, he did that. He did that through the most misguided means of thinking that he could make such promises and not deliver on them, turning his back not only on the physics but also on the reality of what is involved in building the biggest infrastructure project in Australia since the Snowy Mountains Scheme. He thought he had all the answers. He made all these promises and absolutely failed to deliver.

His mantra was that it was going to be 'Fast. Affordable. Sooner.' Fail, fail and fail by this Prime Minister. It is worth noting some of the commentary in today's headline.

The report—

that is, this report about the epic fail that the NBN has become under this government—

which was never intended for public disclosure, reveals the extent to which the more than $46 billion project has drifted off course, mainly during the time when Mr Turnbull was in direct control as communications minister.

I also quote:

… the NBN Co's own documents show that for all that money, it remains bedevilled with problems from the slow design approvals by power utility companies (FTTP did not require electrical supply but FTTN does) and as a result of material and supply problems. Even expertise in dealing with the copper network is scarce.

It is pretty fundamental. When he was minister, the Prime Minister would come in here and say, 'Oh, nbn co didn't know how to dig holes.' You would think nbn co would know that you need an electricity supply, would know that you need these fundamental things, would know that you actually need some technicians who know how to deal with copper. I note the current Minister for Communications Fifield said in his response today that the coalition had taken a 'businesslike' approach to the project. If this is business, they would be out of business.

You only have to look at the importance of high-speed broadband to the changing nature of work. One of the terms that has become quite common now is understanding the notion of freelancers, as we like to call them. I note a most informative article by Rich Pearson of Upwork in Business Insider on 23 February. He notes the freelance economy is growing:

While the government is moving in the right direction by putting innovation at the forefront of the agenda, they need to more substantively support this statement by investing in digital infrastructure in order to maximize the potential of this growing segment of the workforce. The move towards an 'Ideas Boom' is a great first step, but they haven't fully executed against their vision.

One key ingredient to achieve that is:

Building a future-proof, world-class national broadband network. According to a Nielsen report, three-quarters of the nation's businesses believe a national broadband infrastructure will increase their ability to engage in the digital economy

This is a fact that has been known for some time. I even quote from a Deloitte Access Economics report from September 2013, which noted households 'would reap the benefits of a boosted e-commerce industry'. They even go so far as to quantify the benefits that would accrue to certain types of cohorts if the national broadband network is built. I note a single-income couple that runs a small business and has two children could be more than $7,000 a year better off due to factors including boosted productivity and better education opportunities for their children.

Even if you do not want to take it from that study, you can have a look at the report that has been put out by the New South Wales government. We see the New South Wales Minister for Small Business smiling at the front of the document and talking about the opportunities for business. He says technology advances create opportunities and risks for businesses of all sizes and goes into the NBN, talking about how it is a large infrastructure project to significantly increase internet connection speeds for businesses and households and noting that small businesses can indeed benefit from this. It is no secret. But let's look at how this is actually failing small businesses in practice, by not having a real NBN and by this government failing to deliver on its promise. I quote an insightful article by Eloise Keating, for example, 'Australian SMEs failing to get onboard with cloud computing: research':

Sam Bashiry, founder of Smart50 finalist Broadband Solutions, told SmartCompany in the overall scheme of things, the NBN will 'change things for the better' for companies like his own, which offers broadband products in the B2B market.

But he says the proposed benefits of the NBN have been thrown around for 'way too long' and to date, the connections that have been rolled out have been focused on residential users, rather than businesses.

I totally agree about the importance of rolling out this project to every business and every household. That has been the entire aim of this project as devised under Labor. But what we see happening here, under this government, is lip service being given to the importance of broadband for small businesses. I quote from PwC's Small business: digital growth report:

Small businesses will only realise the benefits of internet and mobile technology adoption if the underlying infrastructure (and the software running on the infrastructure) provides them with a suitable level of reliability.

It is at this point that I can indeed turn to another real-life example. One of these announcements we have had from the government in the past year or so has been single-touch payroll. I see an announcement by then Minister Frydenberg in December 2014. In July last year, SmartCompany reported, under the heading, 'The rollout of single-touch payroll treats businesses with contempt':

Some small businesses are pretty much ready for a system such as ‘Single Touch Payroll’ to be rolled out, as they have moved to ‘cloud’ accounting software. However, many have not moved to these ‘cloud’ systems and many will not at the moment as their internet access is so slow. Enter the Communications Minister Malcom Turnbull.

The Communications Minister would have us believe that the rollout of the NBN is going swimmingly and that in this country we have no issues with getting internet access at reasonable speeds. Now, this doesn’t even pass the bulldust test as people try and use the internet for their business daily and many know that it’s not up to scratch.

This is the reality for small businesses. In particular I note the large and growing number of small businesses who operate from home. Let's look at Renai LeMay's article in DeLimiter:

'The performance of data uploading features strongly in a variety of case studies of iiNet small business customers,' the company wrote. 'In all cases, upload performance is the key to their purchasing decision. Nowhere in the strategic review—

This is the strategic review undertaken by then minister Turnbull—

is there any consideration of upload performance to the small business sector of the economy, or at all. Any business utilizing broadband will confirm that upload performance is ‘mission critical’ and yet little attention has been given to this issue, which is strategically important to the Australian digital economy.'

It goes on. We have a situation where then Minister Turnbull rejected claims—he argued that, if businesses and residences wanted to have fibre cables extended, it would not cost the amount of money that we in Labor estimated it would. Let's look at a recent example, again, as reported by Renai LeMay:

The NBN company has given a Newcastle business an estimate ranging up to $9,500 to extend fibre cables 300 metres from the local streetside 'node' through existing Telstra pipes to their facility in the Newcastle CBD, as signals continue to grow that the Coalition's election estimates on fibre on demand costs were inaccurate.

I note that this is hitting home in Greenway. And I note that before the last election the coalition announced that it was going to reassess broadband rollout to the western suburbs. The Hills News reportedthat then shadow minister Turnbull said, 'the Coalition’s fibre-to-the-node policy would prioritise businesses, schools, and employment areas before homes'. This is most confusing. As I said, I argued before the election—and, as we have seen, after the election—we are creating a divided society in the electorate of Greenway.

Here I can quote from some real-life examples. I have an email here from Previn from Acacia Gardens.

My request to you is to help get Acacia gardens onto the NBN rollout schedule.

… … …

I feel for anyone living in Acacia Gardens who is trying to run a home business. I've had to purchase extra wireless internet cards so that my wife can do her schoolwork as at times it's too slow for Google docs to work.

Here is a recent one from Mr and Mrs Watson from Kings Langley.

We have been told by every internet provider that they are unable to provide internet in our area because there are no ports available.

… … …

We are currently using a mobile hotspot for internet. We are paying $49.95 a month for 1GB. When we go over our 1GB allowance our internet slows down to excruciatingly slow speeds.

… … …

We are not prepared to wait until the earliest estimated time which is the first half of 2017. This is over a year away.

I also note an email I have received from Narinder from Glenwood:

It becomes really difficult to work from home for my son as it takes a lot of time to upload files and share data with his office.

And here is one from Simon in Glenwood:

I manage & provide technical support for corporate IT systems which have very high availability SLAs & when I work on a customer problem I need a reliable network otherwise it can compromise my efforts in solving issues for my customers in timely manner.

Here we have Cheryl from The Ponds:

The NBN is all around me and my next door neighbor was lucky enough to have the Internet installed through Telstra. It seems The Ponds is hit and miss with Internet services from what I have found out from my inquiries I am really frustrated.

I have a number of other emails from constituents—I could actually go on all day—because of the number of people I have contacting me saying that it is simply not good enough.

If we are serious in Australia about having world-class broadband, we need to ensure that we get the underlying infrastructure right. This government needs to acknowledge that it has completely botched, with its multitechnology mix, delivery of world-class broadband services.

I see members who are probably going to come in here and probably say that they are improving on the situation. The reality is it is not being improved. Residents in my electorate understand perfectly well that they have been missing out under this government. They promised big time. They overpromised and completely failed to deliver. We can sit here and argue about it—and I am very happy to do that, and I can give real life examples—but the reality is that unless this Prime Minister starts showing some leadership, when it comes to delivering world-class broadband, it is going to remain exactly what it is. It is going to be all talk and absolutely no delivery for the people of Australia.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015. If there ever has been a more poorly considered project I am yet to discover what it is. Labor's plan to deliver the NBN, which was developed on the back of a drinks coaster, has left this nation wondering, truly, they were up to. They were very good at delivering 'fibre to the press release' but, unfortunately, the connections that they made during their time in government left a lot of people wondering what it was all about. The notion that you can have what Labor promised was an absolute pipedream. It cannot be high quality, cheap and built quickly, at the same time. That is, effectively, what Labor promised. It is evidence of the complete inability of those on the other side to roll out what is one of the most complex and technically challenging projects that our nation has undertaken.

This is why when we came to government we recognised—like so many other jurisdictions around the world—a multimix technology. For a large country it, simply, is not feasible to deliver fibre to the premise. I know that in some of the communities in your electorate, Deputy Speaker, as in mine, it was simply inconceivable that they would be able to have fibre to the premise. So what we proposed was a multimix technology, similar to what is available in other parts of the world that are delivering the highest quality speeds, and in a way that allowed regional and rural areas of Australia to have access to fast and reliable broadband that had only previously been the privy those living in inner cities around Australia, and who already had quite reasonable ADSL coverage and speeds available to them. More's the pity for those communities that live in regional areas of Australia. They had been, effectively, left off the map by Labor. One of the things we did, on coming to government, was to prioritise those areas of the country that had little or no access to fast data. Across the nation 25 megabits down and five megabits up is the base package we are in the process of delivering.

In Tasmania—which is more advanced, it is true, in terms of the rollout of the NBN despite the hiccups that occurred under those opposite—it is quite interesting to look at the uptake of the speeds to those premises that do have access to fibre to the premise. It is quite interesting to look at those who are choosing more than the base package of 25 down and five megabits per second up. In fact, less than 10 per cent of those who have taken advantage of the connections have chosen the 100 megabit per second download and 40 upload speeds. That is, primarily, going to be businesses and they do, indeed, pay for that privilege. The vast majority—in fact, 86 per cent—of all of those who have connected to the fibre to the premise that is available around Tasmania have connected at 25 and five megabits or less.

It is quite interesting to note the trials that have recently been conducted in Queensland and, I am very pleased to say, in my electorate of Lyons. The townships of Evandale, Western Junction and Breadalbane will be very soon connected to fibre-to-the-node connections. I note that the trials that have been completed, recently, in Queensland highlight speeds that are extraordinary. They will provide speeds quite comparable to what is available to fibre-to-the-premise users. So it is that around the world this has been the experience previously, but those on the other side knew better.

In the electorate of Lyons, which is a diverse rural and regional electorate, we also have large areas which, again—despite what you hear from those opposite, Deputy Speaker—were never going to get connected by fibre to the premise. Large areas of my electorate are able to access very good speeds on the wireless service. In fact, there are, in the electorate of Lyons, 17,523 premises that can access the NBN via the wireless service, albeit there are about 2,000 of that 17½ thousand still in build. But of those able to connect via those wireless services, there are only around 4½ thousand people who have chosen to connect to available NBN, in some cases, since the middle of June 2013. I look, for example, at the New Norfolk tower that covers 432 premises, where the activation take-up rate is only 34 per cent. There are some that are better than others. For example, at Lyell, down in the Derwent Valley, there are 133 premises, of which only 23 have connected—17 per cent. Some, of course, are higher than that. Forty one per cent of 444 connections on the Mt Direction tower have connected.

The message from the people of Lyons is that, overwhelmingly, the wireless connections have proved to be a very simple way of being able to connect to the NBN. It has been quite a seamless process. It certainly has not involved the digging up of backyards, as has been the case in many of those communities—and a number of them were in my electorate—that were part of that early rollout under the former government: Deloraine, Midway Point, parts of Sorell, St Helens and Triabunna. The stories that we have had—of backyards being dug up, of people making appointments and the appointments being cancelled—just show the complexity of the build in that area, particularly in the remote and regional areas.

This is why I am so pleased. I had the opportunity with the staff from nbn co to go out and inspect the first of the nodes that has been constructed in the township of Evandale, just outside Launceston. There are expected to be 800 premises between Western Junction and Evandale that will be connected, by May of this year, to the fibre-to-the-node technology, which is delivering—albeit for a price. Those that wish to pay a higher price will be able to access speeds that, on some of the trials, have been approaching 100 download and 40 upload. These are the sorts of speeds that are available on fibre to the premises, and they are similarly available on fibre to the node. Of course, most households will not choose those speeds, because a 25 down and five up service allows you to, for example, in most households stream—on Netflix, iview or SBS On Demand—up to five or six services at the one time. The social costs that that brings in a family are for others to judge, but nevertheless the technology of that speed allows more than most households will require.

There is a lot of noise in this space. If small businesses want faster speeds than those described, they will be available and they will pay for them. But the truth of it is, in most areas in my electorate, the speeds are available through wireless, through fibre to the node and, from the middle of this year, the satellite services. Many of the more remote areas of my electorate will be able to access the NBN through the two Sky Muster satellites that have been launched and will be coming on line in the middle of the year for the first time. They will be able to access fast broadband speeds that simply would have been a dream under those opposite.

This is good news overwhelmingly for the people of my electorate. As I mentioned, there are a number of communities there that have access to fibre to the premise. Increasingly we will see the rollout expanded very quickly—in Evandale, Exeter, Lanena and the communities down the West Tamar. Places that will soon be able to access fibre-to-the-node services include Gravelly Beach, Rosevears, Swan Point, Blackwall and Westbury and Hagley. I note the disappointment of the Meander Valley Council. They recently had a report produced which cost them, I understand, somewhat over $10,000. The request for the report was passed by the council, at the instigation of one of the councillors. They were disappointed with the information that was provided. It is a question for the ratepayers of the Meander Valley as to whether that was money well spent by their council, because they also very soon, in Westbury and Hagley, will have 1,100 premises or thereabouts able to access, through fibre-to-the-node technology, some of the fastest speeds that are available on the NBN.

But I go back to my original point. Of those premises that have had access to NBN for a large period of time—in some cases since the middle of 2014—86 per cent of those retail customers are choosing speeds of 25, five or lower, because they are able to do everything that they need to do with those sorts of speeds. For business, of course, it will be slightly different, and those faster speeds are going to be available through the mix of technologies that are being rolled out around the electorate of Lyons as we speak.

Overwhelmingly, it is a good story as far as the rollout of the NBN in my electorate is concerned. I am very pleased to see now that there are communities where we have almost completed the wireless rollout. There are only now 4,000 premises that are still in a build phase. The Coles Bay east tower had struck a planning hurdle, with the tower being located in the national park at Coles Bay. That has been overcome now, so in the tourist town of Coles Bay, Freycinet—some of you might know it, on the east coast of Tasmania, a very lovely part of our state in my electorate—tourist operators will now be able to offer, to the increasing numbers of mainland and international tourists that are coming to Tasmania to enjoy what we have to offer, speeds that they expect. So they are very happy about that.

The fibre-to-the node rollout is commencing, as I mentioned, in those towns. Evandale and along the West Tamar will be the first. Not long after that, you will see fibre to the node being rolled out in Westbury and Hagley in the Meander Valley; Bicheno on the east coast; Campbell Town; Dodges Ferry in the south-east, a growing area of my electorate; Exeter, as I mentioned; Longford, one of the major towns in the Northern Midlands; and New Norfolk, a large town. It will be a simple process. As I say, people will not have to have their backyards dug up. Certainly in the township of Evandale, where there are a lot of heritage houses, that is the last thing that they need. The simplicity of being able to connect to the NBN and access very fast speeds through fibre to the node is indeed welcomed by the overwhelming majority of the people in my electorate who previously have not had access to data connections at anywhere approaching these speeds. Regional Australia finally is being considered and has been a priority for the rollout under this current government. I thank the House for the opportunity to contribute on this debate.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Changes made to the telecommunications legislation in this bill perfectly represent the chaos and dysfunction of this government. What a complete mess this government has made of the rollout of the National Broadband Network across Australia. It is probably one of the biggest and most important infrastructure projects of recent decades, and all this government has done is seek to score political points in the manner in which they have changed the project and introduced a new regime.

This bill, in its original form, was introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 December 2015. What it does is codify many of the recommendations of a review that was established by the former Minister for Communications, who is now the Prime Minister. When they were in opposition the current government promised an independent review of the operation of the National Broadband Network and its future. Well, we did not get that independent review. What we got was a partisan review. The Vertigan panel, as it has become known, was appointed with former Liberal Party staffers. They are the people they appointed to this review to look at the National Broadband Network, and all of them have been critics of Labor's approach to the National Broadband Network in the past.

Unsurprisingly, the Vertigan review recommended the rollback of a number of Labor's competition and consumer friendly reforms that underpin the National Broadband Network. The important principle of universal access to telecommunications throughout the whole of Australia was at threat because of the recommendations made by the Vertigan panel. One of those recommendations was to axe the universal national wholesale pricing regime. This regime ensures that Australians who live in rural and regional areas pay the same wholesale price as people who live in the big cities for the equivalent services. This is a principle that Labor put in place to ensure that we had fairness and equity in telecommunication service delivery in this country.

We all know that Australia is a very big nation, and the tyranny of distance has been a challenge for people who live in rural and regional communities when it comes to accessing government services. So Labor put in place the universal national wholesale pricing regime to ensure that, regardless of where you live in Australia, you pay the same wholesale price to access what are now vitally important and essential telecommunication services. The Vertigan review recommended watering that down. The question I have is: where is the National Party on an issue such as this? Where is the National Party when it comes to such an important government service as telecommunications and the prospect of having the universal national wholesale pricing regime undermined?

The Vertigan review was clearly biased. It was clearly put in place for political means, not to find out what is in the best interest of the nation or how we will get world-class telecommunication services. That is ultimately what is behind the National Broadband Network that Labor put in place: we want world-class telecommunication services. Other nations throughout the world are receiving speeds of up to 100 megabits per second when it comes to accessing the internet. Not many houses or business premises in Australia are able to access those speeds, and that was why we built and intended to build a fibre-optic cable to the premises network. That is what the rest of the world is doing. That is what a modern telecommunication system looks like, not the one that this government has sought to introduce for purely political means—purely to say that their version was cheaper than Labor's and would be rolled out more quickly. In the end, what they have done is give us a half-baked NBN. It is an inferior system. It is a second-rate system for our nation. That is unacceptable in modern-day Australia. A wealthy nation like Australia, with the government services that we have, should not put up with a second-rate system. That is why Labor has been critical of what this government is doing with the National Broadband Network.

But it is not just the Labor Party that is critical. There has been much independent analysis of what this government has been doing on the National Broadband Network, the recommendation of the Vertigan review, the amendments that are made through this bill and the effects that they are having on the delivery of the National Broadband Network. I will quote some of them for you because I think they perfectly highlight what this government is up to when it comes to the National Broadband Network. If anyone knows anything about accessing telecommunication services and ensuring competition and fair access, it is the former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Professor Graeme Samuel. He said:

Multiple reviews, at vast cost, have been completed, primarily focused on demonstrating that the Labor government’s NBN concept was flawed or at least was less economically viable than that of the Coalition. Unfortunately, much of the review analysis has had a political tarnish which diminishes its value in forward planning for this important infrastructure project.

I could not have summed it up better. Professor Graeme Samuel has hit the nail on the head. With this government it is all about political point-scoring rather than delivering a first rate National Broadband Network and doing what is in the interests of Australians across the whole of the nation.

The Senate select committee that had a look at the review of the National Broadband Network—the so-called independent cost-benefit analysis that was part of the Vertigan panel's review—had this to say about it:

The Cost-Benefit Analysis is a deeply flawed and overtly political document. It is not credible and is not a reliable basis upon which to make decisions about the NBN.

That is what the Senate committee said about the Vertigan panel. But what does this government do? They are amending the telecommunications legislation based on what is a deeply flawed and clearly biased political report. Unfortunately, all Australians will suffer because of this.

Labor indicated that they would oppose those elements of the bill that are flawed and that come from this clearly biased and politically motivated review. They include parts 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the telecommunications legislation. So we indicated to the government that we would not support those parts of the bill. What does the government do? At the last minute, they withdraw those parts of the bill. They are amending their own legislation and withdrawing those parts of the bill, because they have worked out that they are deeply offensive, come from a politically biased report and are not in the best interests of Australia.

The way this government is developing policy on one of the most important infrastructure projects in our nation's history is: they are making it up as they go. As we have seen in a number of policy areas—tax reform, competition policy, other important economic principles—they are making these policies up as they go, because they do not have a clear plan and an economic vision for our nation.

In this policy area and in a number of other areas, the Australian people are suffering from the constant changes that are occurring—ministers being replaced, leaderships ballots, people having to resign because they have done the wrong thing as ministers and a revolving door of ministerial appointments are all having an effect on good government in this country.

We all know that these are big portfolios, particularly telecommunications, and it takes a long time for a new minister to get across the issues and meet with all the players and stakeholders who operate in that area. Clearly, the government is suffering from this. At the last minute, the government is seeking to amend its own legislation, because it has worked out that it is flawed and that the Australian people are suffering. This is symbolic of this government's approach to the National Broadband Network and policy development more generally.

As I mentioned earlier, these reviews are aimed at political pointscoring and trying to blame the Labor Party rather than having good policy, and the people of Australia have been suffering. We are going to be saddled with a second-rate national broadband network. Every other broadband network in developed nations is delivering fibre optic cable to the premises. Why? Because that is the latest and most up-to-date technology. Nations across the whole of Europe and much of the United States are delivering the best technology for their citizens. Why wouldn't Australia do the same thing? Under the original plan of the previous Labor government, we were doing that. Sure, there were some teething problems in the early days—there always are with big infrastructure projects; we all know that—but, at the end of the day, you are better off, if you have an up-to-date system that delivers first-class and world-class communications technology for its citizens. This government has sought to score political points by trying to blame Labor and introducing an inferior system so that they can say that it is cheaper than the Labor Party's. It is infuriating because, instead of getting fibre to the home and fibre to the business—fibre optic cable, the latest technology—you get fibre optic cable to the end of the street and then the information runs down the old copper network.

The copper network was installed before the first man walked on the moon—that is how old it is. It goes back to before the 1960s. So here we have first-rate technology delivering information to the node and then slow as a wet week down the copper network to the home. Naturally, we are seeing the consequences of that and some of the testimonials from people who have connected to this new system are quite shocking, because guess what? At the end of the day, when everyone goes home and gets on the internet, it slows down; it is using outdated technology. Australians are suffering. We have had testimonials from people who have been connected, saying, 'Bring back my ADSL2 connection, because what they've given us is inferior even to that old technology.'

In a number of areas, we have seen that the government is not meeting the targets it set for itself. Malcolm Turnbull, the now Prime Minister, when he was the communications minister, said that the second-rate NBN would only cost $41 billion. Two years on in the progress reports that have been released on the delivery of the NBN, we see that the second-rate NBN will actually cost up to $56 billion—a 37 per cent increase in the cost.

The Prime Minister said previously that the cost to connect fibre to the node to the home would cost about $600; it is actually costing $1,600—a 167 per cent increase. This is something that Labor said would be an issue. Under our system, we had a reasonable price to connect. Everyone had the same access; there may have been differences in plans and the like, but there was competition and people could make their own choices. We said that you would pay more to connect to lousy, inferior technology, and that is exactly what is occurring.

The Prime Minister said that it would cost $55 million to fix up the copper network: it is actually costing $641 million. I have had a number of Telstra technicians, living in my electorate, come to me, saying that they could not believe that they were actually using the rusty old, outdated copper network to connect people to the National Broadband Network—it is almost criminal to call it the National Broadband Network, given that people are being connected through this second-rate technology.

With all the changes in minsters in this area, a new Prime Minister and these partisan reviews that have been conducted, which are clearly trying to score points against the Labor Party, we have seen an inferior national broadband network developed for this country. The people of Australia are suffering. In my community, in the electorate of Kingsford Smith, under Labor's plan we would have been receiving the National Broadband Network now. Fibre to the premises was being rolled out from July 2015 from Kensington and gradually making its way east and south across the whole of the electorate. When the Liberals came to government, they stopped the rollout of the National Broadband Network in our community; they took us off the rollout map.

The people of my community have suffered ever since. We have got a handful of brand-new unit developments that have the National Broadband Network and that is it. No-one else is getting the fibre-to-the-home or business National Broadband Network that they are rightly entitled to and should expect from a modern-day Australian government. What is being delivered is an inferior system. People in areas and communities like mine have been taken off the rollout map, and it is clearly not good enough. The changes that are being made to this bill at the last minute reflect the fact that this government is completely ballsing up the National Broadband Network rollout, and that chaos and dysfunction are affecting the policy development of this government.

Debate adjourned.