Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Blaxland proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The House was informed that Mr Clare had proposed that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely, 'The government’s failure to deliver on the NBN for Australians.'

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, this is the latest report from Akamai, which ranks internet speeds of different countries around the world. It is a damning indictment on this government and this Prime Minister because, in the last three years, Australia has gone from 30th in the world to 60th in the world for internet speeds—behind most of Asia, Europe, America, Canada and even New Zealand. We are even behind Russia, Poland and Slovakia.

That is this Prime Minister's legacy as communications minister: from 30th in the world, for internet speeds, down to 60th. He was a failure as communications minister, not just according to this report but according to his own standards, the standards he set for himself just over three years ago when he released The coalition’s plan for fast broadband and an affordable NBN. His policy was to be put to the people of Australia at the last election. Most of the promises that were made in this policy have been broken, including the two big ones. One was a promise that he could build the NBN for $29½ billion, and the other was that everyone in Australia would have access to the NBN by the end of this year. Both of those have now been broken, not by a little bit by a lot. The cost of the NBN is not $29½ billion anymore. It has now blown out to up to $56 billion.

In question time today, the Prime Minister gave us a lecture about $20 billion and how much that was. He said in answer to the first question, 'We regard $20 billion as a huge amount of money. It could provide a full year of hospital funding, more than a full year of schools funding and the duplication of the Hume Highway.' The blow-out of the NBN is more than that, more than $20 billion. It has blown out by $26½ billion on his watch. Remember the other promise? It is a promise that everyone across Australia would get the NBN this year. Tasmania would have gotten it last year, apparently. They are still waiting. The promise was that the whole country would get it this year.

Well, guess what: we are still waiting. If you are still buffering, blame Malcolm Turnbull. More than 80 per cent of the country is still waiting for Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN. It is an epic fail. Where this really rubs people the wrong way is in electorates like Perth and Cowan in WA, Banks in New South Wales, Deakin in Victoria or Bonner in Queensland. In these electorates—

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bonner! In Bonner you're a gonna.

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sorry to say it, but this includes Bonner as well. In these electorates no-one in an existing home or business has the NBN—not a soul. Remember that the Prime Minister said that everyone in these electorates would have the NBN this year. It is an extraordinary breach of faith.

It is the same on the west coast of Tasmania. Before the last election, the Prime Minister said that he would build a fibre link to the west coast of Tasmania. Both sides of politics said the same thing: we would build fibre to the west coast of Tasmania. Then, slyly and sneakily, without any announcement, in August last year the Prime Minister switched from building a fibre link to the west coast of Tasmania to putting them on the satellite version of the NBN. Understandably, the people of the west coast of Tasmania have had a gutful of that. They are awfully peeved off. I went to a community meeting in Queenstown in Tasmania last month with the local member. I have never been to a meeting where more people were so angry about being ripped off and dudded by this government on the NBN. They said things in that meeting that I could not repeat in this parliament. They were seriously angry and felt they had been dudded, and that was why I was in Tasmania again last week to announce that a Shorten Labor government will reverse this sneaky, bad decision by Malcolm Turnbull and give the people of the west coast of Tasmania the fibre link that they were promised.

Why has all this happened? Why have there been all the broken promises? How did the Prime Minister get this policy that he put together three years ago so wrong? There is one word for it, and it is 'copper'. He thought that he could do fibre-to-the-node quite simply and quite cheaply. He thought it would be easy, but he seriously underestimated how hard it would be to go from building a fibre NBN to a copper NBN. He said that he could negotiate access to the copper from Telstra quickly. He said he could do it in a couple of months. It ended up taking nearly two years to seal the deal with Telstra. He also underestimated how much it would cost to build this copper version of the NBN fibre-to-the-node. He said it would be 600 bucks a home for fibre-to-the-node. But, again, that was a massive error. In fact, it was $1,600 a home. He also underestimated the cost of fixing the copper. He said it would cost $55 million to fix the old copper that they had bought back from Telstra. He said it was a conservative assumption. In fact, it is $783 million. It has blown out by more than 1,000 per cent.

He has also had problems with the rollout of this copper NBN. I have a good example. A story that was in The Sydney Morning Herald a couple of months ago revealed that nbn co were supposed to have rolled out fibre-to-the-node to 94,000 homes by 12 February, but they got nowhere near that. According to leaked documents, they only hit 29,000. Then last month there was another leaked document. This time, in the Financial Review, the headline 'Leaked NBN documents confirm lengthy delays' revealed that, of the first 40 fibre-to-the-node areas, all of them are behind schedule. Not one of them has been built on time. Every single one of those first 40 fibre-to-the-node areas are all behind schedule.

But it gets even worse, because where it has been switched on it is not working properly. I have told the parliament stories before about the problems in the Hunter, on the Central Coast and in Bundaberg where people have signed on to fibre-to-the-node and are now getting slower speeds than they were getting with ADSL. A good example of that was a recent headline in the Hunter. 'Hunter's National Broadband Network in crisis as consumers are plagued by delays and speed issues' tells the story of one man, Mark Jackson, who said: 'As soon as we connected, our speeds went down really badly, to the point where I can't even use Facebook'. And he is just one. There are many people in the Hunter who are complaining to good local members of parliament and complaining to nbn co, saying, 'Fix this mess.' It has got that bad that last week nbn co actually issued an official apology to the people of the Hunter for the mess that they have made.

Then, yesterday, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman released its complaints data for the first three months of this year. When you look at the complaints data, one thing stands out: all these suburbs—like Toukley, Newcastle, Warners Bay and Belmont North—are in areas where Malcolm Turnbull's slower, second-rate copper version of the NBN has been switched on. They are all areas where complaints are up. In fact, six of the top 10 suburbs in the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's complaint report yesterday are areas where fibre-to-the-node has recently been switched on.

It gets even worse than that. I have told the parliament before about how much new copper this government is buying to make this second-rate network work. It is 10 million metres of new copper—enough to connect Melbourne to Mumbai. But now it gets even more bizarre than that, because I recently found this job ad on Seek: Manager Copper Service Assurance:

The Manager Copper Service Assurance will lead an nbn team working closely with the Managed Service Partner teams in Melbourne, Mumbai and Delhi. This role will provide visible leadership in relation to the performance management for all aspects of inbound/outbound Service Management.

This role will be based in Mumbai, India. This is not a fly-in fly-out role. It will require the manager of copper service assurance to reside in India on an ongoing basis. Not only have they bought back Telstra's old copper network, not only are they now buying 10 million metres of new copper, but now they are sending jobs to Mumbai to fix their second-rate copper network. What a mess! It is going to take a Labor government to fix this mess.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the best that Labor has got on budget day. Labor is so bereft of a plausible story to tell on economic management that on the day the Australian people turn their attention to the vital question of which party has the better economic plan for Australia the best that Labor can come up with as a topic for a matter of public importance debate is this tired old piece of wishful thinking from the member for Blaxland.

The member for Blaxland dreams of an alternative universe in which Labor are competent administrators and the coalition are failing in their NBN roll-out plan. He hopes that, if he says it often enough, that alternative reality will come true. On 17 September 2015 the MPI topic was: 'The Prime Minister's mismanagement of the NBN'. He had another go on 21 October: 'The Prime Minister's second-rate NBN'. On 10 February this year: 'The Prime Minister failing Australians with his second-rate NBN'. And now he is trying again: 'The government's failure to deliver on the NBN for Australians'. The member for Blaxland can say it as often as he wants but it is just not true, because there are three fundamental propositions: firstly, Labor are hopeless on delivery; secondly, Labor were hopeless on the delivery of the national broadband network in their six years of government; and, thirdly, where Labor failed the coalition are delivering.

Let's turn to the question of Labor's proven hopelessness on delivery. It is frankly extraordinary that the Labor Party would come in here and voluntarily raise the topic of delivery on a policy promise. Let's just remind ourselves: on budget day, what promise comes to mind? 'The four years of surpluses I promise tonight.' Of course, did the member for Lilley deliver it? He delivered nothing. What about the naval ships and submarines? How much was delivered in six years? Oh, that would be nothing! Again, nothing! While we are talking about Labor's delivery record, what about Fuelwatch and GroceryWatch? What did that deliver? That delivered actually nothing. What about the Home Insulation Program? What did that deliver? Well, we do know, unfortunately, that it delivered house fires and, tragically, the deaths of four young Australians. What about border protection? What about Labor's complete failure to deliver when it came to border protection? Oh, they did deliver 50,000 illegal arrivals and over 1,000 deaths at sea. What about Labor's failed deal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia declared illegal by the High Court? What about the mining tax—the tax that failed to deliver just about any revenue.

What about Labor's GP superclinics? Remember Labor's GP superclinics? Twenty-eight were promised at the 2010 election and by 2013 one was operational. That is more than the ships they delivered. One was operational. What about ending the double drop-off? Remember the promise to end the double drop-off? In 2007 they promised to build 260 childcare centres under the 'end the double drop-off' policy. By February 2010 they had built three. What about trades training centres? They promised to build one of those in each of our 2,650 high schools. By February 2010, how many were operational? One. So it really is deeply ill-advised of the Labor Party to talk about delivery—the very topic they presume to raise in this matter of public importance debate this afternoon, because when it comes to delivery the Australian people know from the track record of the Labor Party that they are hopeless.

Let's turn specifically to their record of delivery when it comes to the National Broadband Network. What did they first promise in 2007? At that election they promised a network that was going to be 12 megabits per second; it was going to go to 98 per cent of the population; it was going to be fibre-to-the-node; and it was going cost taxpayers a mere $4.7 billion. What happened in April 2009? They had to admit that policy was a complete failure. They could not deliver on it. Are we noticing a theme about Labor? They are hopeless at delivery. What then happened in April 2009? Oh, a new policy. It was going to deliver fibre-to-the-premises to 12.2 million people—but there was still going to be private sector investment. Of course, by 2010 they had to admit that they could not get that, because the expert consultants report that they themselves commissioned said the private sector would not touch it with a barge pole. What did they deliver by September 2013 after six years in government? They had spent money. They had spent over $6 billion. Of the 12.2 million premises, how many actual connections were there when Labor left government in September 2013? Barely 50,000 premises had been connected. This was a rolled-gold implementation disaster. So it really is extraordinary that Labor should presume to come into this chamber and even raise the topic of delivery when their track record is absolutely dismal.

Now let us have a look at what the coalition has been doing since we have been in government in getting on to deliver the NBN. What is the first thing that we did? We put in a competent board of experienced telecommunication professionals, because, bizarrely, there were no people on the NBN board who knew much about telecommunications. They did not have the expertise. We brought in a competent board chaired by Ziggy Switkowski, a former CEO of Telstra and a former CEO of Optus. Then we brought in a competent management team led by Bill Morrow, a former CEO of Vodafone in Australia of Vodafone and other network business all around the world. Step 1: competent board. Step 2: competent management team. Next step: let's get a credible roll-out plan, multitechnology mix, fibre-to-the-premises, fibre-to-the-node and HFC. Let's say that it turns out that the hybrid fibre coax network built in the nineties is capable at modest cost of being upgraded to 100 megabits per second. It turns out that is what the technical expertise advised us. That might be a slightly better idea than Labor's insanely wasteful and fundamentally stupid idea of paying both Telstra and Optus—in Telstra's case billions; in the case of my former employer Optus, over $800 million—to tear down a working network. That is why once a team of credible, experienced telecommunications professionals got in there they said: 'This is a sensible way to proceed—multitechnology mix.' How is it going? Well, you can find out very easily, because every week the roll-out numbers are reported on the internet on the company's website—something that never happened in Labor's a time. Quarter after a quarter—seven quarters in a row—NBN has met the financial targets and the roll-out targets that it has set for itself. Did that ever happen under Labor? No. They never met their targets. Why? Because they had no idea what they were doing. Let's look at the number of Australians who are now able to connect to this network. It is almost two million premises. That compares to barely 50,000 people who were connected to the network when Labor left government. It is now two million premises.

This is a tough, complex job. There is more to do, but we are getting on with it. We are now seeing the fibre-to-the-node rollout continuing at over 10,000 premises a week, and that number will rise continually over coming months and years. This is a challenging rollout. We are getting on with the job. We are delivering the NBN. It is, frankly, an extraordinary proposition from the Labor Party to come in here and even begin to raise the topic of delivery. The Australian people know, when it comes to the NBN, or when it comes to any other aspect of Labor's dismal track record, that you cannot trust Labor on the NBN.

But the most interesting question is: what is Labor's plan? What is Labor actually going to do with the National Broadband Network should it get into government? What is Labor going to do? It is quite interesting. What did the Leader of the Opposition say when he was asked this question at a forum televised on Sky News? He said:

We won't rip up everything that Mr Turnbull has done because I think … not everything the Liberals do is bad. So we will do a hybrid of some of what he's done but we will have in our announcement, which we will be putting pretty soon, a greater proportion of the use of fibre and we will also look at the proportions of fibre and we think we can provide more of that to more Australians.

What does that actually mean? What it means is that it is the multitechnology mix. It is a mix of fibre to the premises, fibre to the node, fibre to the distribution point, HFC—hybrid fibre coaxial—all of the elements being brought together to get the NBN rolled out as quickly as possible. The Leader of the Opposition has effectively conceded is that ours is the best plan. Ours is a plan that is delivering, and the most sensible thing for Labor to do, should they get back into government, would be to maintain the plan. That is essentially what he signalled Labor is going to do. Labor are very unwise to be talking about delivery because on the NBN—and everything else—their track record is dismal. On this side of the House, we are delivering. (Time expired)

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If there was any greater way of telling that the government were embarrassed about their own failure at the NBN, it is the fact that their minister, who was so deeply involved in it for so long, spent the first half of his speech talking about anything other than the NBN. They do not want to talk about the NBN at all. It has turned out to be a massive embarrassment for them, because a network that was supposed to be delivered faster is being delivered slower; a network that was supposed to be delivered cheaper has doubled in cost; and they are failing to even meet the simple targets that they set for themselves. In fact, to their great credit, nbn co is rolling out apologies for service faster than fibre. They have done very well at the apology letter writing business. They are doing excellently at that.

I do love the sense of irony that the coalition put out this policy on the NBN. What it really should have been is their promise to deliver high-speed semaphore, because that is all they are capable of delivering. When you go through the statistics they are damning. Let's go through every single thing they said they would do and whether they delivered. This is the reason Minister Fletcher was unable to talk about the NBN for the first half of his speech.

Malcolm Turnbull promised everyone in the country that they would get the NBN this year. More than 83 per cent of the country are still waiting for the second-rate network. Malcolm Turnbull said that his second-rate NBN would cost $29.5 billion; now the cost is almost $56 billion. He said in 2013 he would get his second-rate NBN to all homes in Australia by this year; that time frame is now out to 2020. He said that his second-rate copper NBN would cost $600 per home; that has now tripled to $1,600 per home. He said in 2013 that it would cost $55 million to patch up the old copper network; that has blown out by more than 1,300 per cent.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How much?

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

1,300 per cent, Member for Throsby. He also said in 2013 that 2.61 million homes would be connected to pay TV cables by 2016; nbn co now forecast that they will only connect 10,000 homes by June this year. He said his second-rate network would bring in $2.5 billion in revenue; that has crashed to $1.1 billion. These are all nails in the coffin of every single fantasy that that side would deliver faster broadband. But do you know what the most damning one is? In his two years as communications minister, the man who promised us fibre to the node did not connect a single paying customer to his fibre-to-the-node network—not one in two years. To say that you are the friend of the NBN and that you are going to deliver on the NBN is almost like Kathy Bates in Misery classifying her sledge hammer as a therapeutic good.

It is ridiculous that your side can competently say, in any shape or form, that you are here to deliver. You are not. You are simply slowing down the network, and people know that it is a dud. Now you have a situation where the jobs of the future are being shipped out overseas. The jobs of the future are to deal with copper. Who in their right minds ever said that the future was copper? It is like delivering a hybrid horse and buggy. It is a joke of what you have turned this network into that you could be reduced to this—that it would all be about copper.

Do you know what I would be interested in, Minister? During your time at Optus, you talked so much about the hybrid network—HFC and hybrid fixed cable. I would love—

Mr Fletcher interjecting—

Coaxial, sorry. You know the name of it and you know how bad it is. But you never mention how many complaints you got on that network, how unreliable it was during your time at Optus and how unreliable it would be now. They are still stuck in the past.

The bottom line is this: if you want to see a modern network that will meet the expectations of the community, you cannot rely on that side opposite. They will do everything they can to slow the rollout down, to make sure it is inaccessible and to make sure it does not deliver for Australians in the way that they want. It is going to be Labor that will have to fix up this network.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Major Projects, Territories and Local Government, Minister Fletcher, spoke about Labor's lack of ability to deliver. But we do know what they can deliver. They can deliver record debt, record deficit, increased taxes and, today, they can actually deliver a wonderful black hole in their tobacco tax of $20 billion.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are excited about that, aren't they?

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, they are very excited about debt and deficit, because they are best at it. So when we talk about rollout and delivery, let us talk about the South-West in my part of the world, which has been a major beneficiary of the coalition's investment in communications. I personally want to thank the Prime Minister and Minister Fletcher, who is at the table, for their support in getting better broadband sooner into the south west. It was nowhere under the Labor debacle. When my electorate was looking at NBN under Labor, it was under 'next decade or beyond'. My region today, under the coalition, is seeing NBN rolling out right now. Boxes are being built right throughout the electorate, cables are being run down the streets and local technicians are at work. There are great opportunities for local technicians and local employment, with local people doing the work. That is happening as I speak right now, and not from 2020 onwards, as Labor said for my electorate. Our coalition NBN project has ensured that the rollout will be completed sooner, cheaper for taxpayers and more affordably for the consumers of the product itself.

We will soon see approximately 55,000 premises in my electorate of Forrest connected to the NBN by means of fixed line technology and an additional 3,320 premises getting access through wireless technology throughout the South-West, years ahead of the time under the costly and inefficient Labor broadband proposal. As I said, we were looking well beyond 2020. It was a never, never Labor plan. Of course, 6½ thousand premises went live last week in Bunbury. They are now getting access to the national broadband network. They are being connected, and construction is well underway and continuing throughout the Bunbury and broader region.

The greater Bunbury region will see a total of 32,000 premises accessing the NBN via fixed line technology much faster than previously thought. Not 2020 and beyond but today. It would have been never under Labor. Construction is also underway in Busselton. Under Labor, they were also not going to have access till beyond 2020. We saw street side NBN cabinets installed there last month. Again, it was local technicians doing much of the work. In the Busselton region 2,300 premises will soon be connected by fixed line to the NBN out of a total of 16,600 premises that will over time get fixed line access to the NBN. Another 2,500 will get wireless access. A further 4,300 premises—we are talking about delivery here—will be connected by fixed line in Eagle Bay, Quindalup, and Dunsborough.

It was really fantastic to see the interim satellite launched—the first of NBN's two world-class communication satellites. The Sky Muster means that the wait for access to the NBN is over for many of the more remote homes and businesses not only in Forrest but right around Australia. Last week the minister announced the Sky Muster was open for business—that is what you call delivery. Eligible customers can now apply to their local internet service provider for a broadband connection.

The coalition's NBN is effective and efficient, because it has a proper business model to operate under. I welcome nbn co limited's half yearly results, including customer research showing the level of satisfaction with broadband services delivered using fibre-to-the node technology are the same as those using the fibre-to-the-premises technology. These results are a clear indication that the coalition's approach to delivering the NBN sooner, more effectively and more cost-effectively is working. Minister Fletcher, I congratulate you and the Prime Minister for your leadership in this space, seeing better broadband sooner delivered to the people of Forrest in my electorate.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After we heard from the representative of the Minister for Communications, I thought we would hear from someone from that portfolio. I thought we would hear from the innovation minister. Instead who did we hear from? Someone symbolically connected with the horse and buggy—the whip. That is how far back we have to go with those opposite when it comes to the NBN.

Let us remember what the national broadband network is all about. Why are we investing money in the national broadband network? The NBN will give us the jobs of the future. The NBN will give us boosts in innovation, and I do not mean a $28 million fake advertising campaign about innovation. The NBN will deliver innovation. The NBN will boost productivity, whether it be in manufacturing, whether it be in education, whether it be in delivering services in the Asian century.

That is why Labor were prepared to invest in fibre. Labor were prepared to invest in it. We said right up-front, 'Let us do it right; let us do it once; let us do it with fibre.' We know it was a great policy because those opposite said that they would do the same thing. In fact, in 2013 Malcolm Turnbull promised that, under a coalition government, in 2016 all Australians would have access to their NBN. That was the promise. A booklet was waved by every coalition candidate around the country, saying, 'We are on the same ticket.' It was just like Gonski! Just like Gonski, they said they would be on the same ticket. The sad reality is that 83 per cent of this nation does not have Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN.

I know it was a big campaign issue in the marginal seat of Moreton. I will quote from the Southern Star, one of my trusted local Quest newspapers. They said:

The National Broadband Network is a hot topic for Moreton voters, some of whom have voiced concern over how the rollout will proceed if there is a change of government.

And there is a quote from Rachael Zhong, who had a business in Rocklea. If you want to see what is going on in Moreton, check out the nbn co website. What does it say right now? Rachael from Rocklea was concerned about what would happen to the NBN if the coalition got in. What does nbn co say for Rocklea right now? It says:

The rollout of the NBN network has not started in this area.

This is despite Malcolm Turnbull's promise and despite the LNP's promise. My opponent, the LNP candidate, said in 2013:

We will get this out faster and cheaper than under the Government's plan—

that is, the Labor government's plan—

because we don't need to dig up every footpath to deliver the NBN to the home.

But what do we have now? No upgrade at all and no NBN. They are left with an out-of-date copper service centred in Mumbai or somewhere else, and we are still waiting.

Who should we blame for that, now the opportunity for innovation is gone, the opportunity for productivity is gone and the opportunity to sell jobs and services into Asia is gone? Malcolm Turnbull—that is who. Who should we blame? Him. In 2013 Malcolm Turnbull said his second-rate NBN would cost $29.5 billion. It is now up to $56 billion. I was an English teacher and not a maths teacher, but I think that is $26.5 billion extra. He said that everyone in Australia would have his second-rate NBN by now, but look at what is happening. He said it would only cost $600 per home, but now the cost is $1,600 per home. In 2013 Malcolm Turnbull sabotaged the rollout of the NBN. He estimated it would cost $55 million to patch up the NBN rollout, but instead the cost blowout is 1,300 per cent, to more than $780 million. So we have a hole of $1.4 billion. In the two years Malcolm Turnbull was the Minister for Communications he did not connect a single paying customer to his fibre-to-the-node network.

The Prime Minister's management of the NBN means the people in my electorate of Moreton are suffering. They are not happy with the LNP. Lee from Sunnybank Hills contacted my office about the slow implementation of the NBN. He says:

The volume of traffic on the internet has grown, particularly with the arrival of Netflix and other online media functions that are replacing TV broadcasting. Internet service providers now sell unlimited monthly volumes compared to, say, 50 to 100GB a month just three years ago.

Tim from Moorooka has also contacted my office. He says:

My family and I have recently moved to Moorooka from regional Queensland. We're loving the vibrancy of the community as well as the diversity of the culture on show. However, I was disappointed to find out that NBN was not yet available and was told they didn't know when it might be available.

That is despite the promises of my LNP opponent and despite the promises of the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Malcolm Turnbull. Shame on him.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Nationals Whip, I am probably closer to the horse and buggy than most in this place. I will tell you something else, Mr Deputy Speaker: if it were up to the Labor Party, that is where country Australia would still be. The Labor Party's contribution today has been like that back-of-the-envelope service that Senator Conroy gave us—it has been intermittent and garbled. That is what their contribution today has been, like their back-of-the-envelope service.

In 2013, when the coalition came to government, I asked the representatives of the NBN to come into my office and give me a briefing on where we were up to. 'Just out of interest,' I said, 'when on the plan is my home town on to be connected?' It was 2024. I am pleased to say that it has now been moved up to 2017—next year. As of tomorrow, there will be 4,600 houses NBN ready in Dubbo, and by the end of June there will be 16,000 premises connected. There are houses in Wellington and Gulgong; Coolah already has it. The NBN is rolling out now at an escalating pace and people can actually see that they are going to get the service.

On Monday the Sky Muster satellite came online. People in my electorate can now get the Sky Muster satellite service. There is an extra reason for wanting that satellite service in my electorate—for six years not one cent went into the mobile phone coverage. The only connection that these people are going to have with the outside world is through this satellite. The member for Moreton talks about someone from Jerrys Plains or Emu Hills or wherever it was who was distressed. I bet she has a mobile phone that works. I bet she can make a call when she wants to. The people in my electorate around Condobolin, Wanaaring, Nevertire and Upper Horton cannot even make a phone call. They are running multimillion-dollar businesses and they cannot make a phone call. They are excited about the Sky Muster satellite going up. They are excited that the towns they are dealing with in their businesses will be connected to fast broadband. They are excited that the wireless network that is going up in places like Gilgandra and Cooks Gap is going to make a difference to their lives.

It is all right for the former Prime Minister and the Minister for Communications to nut out these lofty aspirations on the back of an envelope while they are sipping chardonnay somewhere over the desert in the VIP, but when it comes to implementation and actually doing something like digging up the dirt and laying cables members of the Labor Party have got no idea—just like they have no idea with anything else of a practical nature to do with running the country. It is like doing a university assignment without any practical understanding of how things should be implemented. Under the present Prime Minister, and when he was the Minister for Communications, ably assisted by the member for Bradfield, we are now seeing the NBN being rolled out on track in a timely manner.

What does this mean? I can tell you what it means for someone like Gina Terbutt, who runs Dust'n'Boots, an online clothing business that employs four or five people. She is 16 kilometres out of Warialda and sells work wear, smart casual wear and business wear online all over Australia. She is relying on a patched-up phone service for connection and is greatly frustrated by dropouts. Dust'n'Boots, operating from regional Australia, will now be able to hook up to a reliable, regular satellite service and be connected not only to their customers right around Australia but also to their suppliers in Indonesia, China and other places around the world. The Lewises at Jac Wagyu sell product from their wagyu cattle farm. With the connection of the satellite they will be able to operate their business much more effectively.

Also important is the Mobile Black Spot Program the member for Bradfield oversaw, which saw 499 phone towers go up. The next round is coming along nicely. We are going to be able to have businesses in regional Australia, in my electorate, for the first time having something that people in other parts of Australia take for granted. (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What an interesting debate this is. We have it quite regularly because of the failure of this government. First, we had the failure under Malcolm Turnbull and now we have the failure under the member for Bradfield. I heard the member for Bradfield talking earlier about satellites. I distinctly remember at the time of the national broadband network rollout hearing from the member for Bradfield, the man they have made into the communications man—this is the man that knows all; he is ex-Optus. Of course, we know how much Optus celebrated when he got rolled. He sat there and asked about the satellite launches, 'Are they a standard platform?', to which NBN said, 'No, they're not. They're not a standard platform.' He responded: 'Are they are standard platform?' They said, 'No, they're not.' Then the member for Bradfield's asked, 'Are they customised?' If they are not a standard platform of course they are customised. They are customised to suit the needs of Australians and what we need in a broad country to get services out everywhere. On satellite technology, we know that those guys did not want it. The government did not want to put two new satellites in place. In fact, they argued passionately against it. Luckily, there was a bloke named Quigley running the NBN. He put them in their place and showed them that they were actually needed.

We talk constantly about the issues with broadband, because the MTM, as it is called—the Malcolm Turnbull mess—has done nothing but fail everyone. I go to areas in my electorate, such as Sunbury, where there has been not one new connection in 2½ years. It was supposed to have been finished in 2015. Now because of the failure of this bloke, the member for Bradfield, who has taken over from the last failure, it has rolled over to be 'work starting in 2017'. People are losing jobs and having to move because of the failure of the member for Bradfield and his predecessor the member for Wentworth.

We heard the member for Bradfield get up earlier and say, 'Oh, we've had 100 per cent success!' That is right; there has been 100 per cent success. Every single fibre-to-the-node thing they have put in place is not working. As the member for Chifley pointed out, you are rolling out apologies more than you can roll out connections. You have absolutely failed.

Let us look at community forums. We had the member for Bradfield come down with his secret little forum. It was invitation only. It was held on the Thursday before Easter: 'We can't let anyone know, just the Liberal Party.' Of course, we found out about it and we turned out. The good thing was that every single person who left that forum, after two hours of listening to him, said that they would not vote Liberal, because they had to put up with him and a Liberal candidate for two hours and learnt that the government has not got a clue what it is doing with broadband. Compare that with what we were doing. We had the member for Blaxland come down and attend a packed out forum in Sunbury. Mind you, the member for Bradfield has not responded to any letters from people in Sunbury, nor has he responded to any invitations to come down to Sunbury. He is too scared. He knows he is going to have to sit in a room with people who are talking about how they have to shut their businesses and move because of this bloke's failure to deliver broadband to our community. We have people who are electronic design engineers using large files who have to spend more money—you know, they love to talk about how great they are in business. The extra cost that those opposite are putting on companies in suburban and regional areas means that these companies are putting off local workers and have to have extra expenses as they go to other areas to run their business. That is because of the failure of this government to deliver broadband.

We have had no new rollout in three years in the fastest growing part of Victoria. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing parts of Australia. We have had not one new connection. People are sitting there each and every day saying, 'When am I getting the rollout? When is it actually going to come?' They do not know, because this lot over there would not have a clue. They would not know whether they are Arthur or Martha.

We heard earlier some chipping in by the member for Irons, and I am glad he pointed out to remind me—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Swan!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Swan—talking about the pink batts and the failure there, saying that it was four deaths and trying to blame that directly on the government. I hope that he is going to stand up and call for a royal commission. We have had two deaths already this year in the NBN rollout. We look forward to seeing the member for Bradfield and the failure that we call the Prime Minister sitting there and explaining why your policies, why your rollout, is causing these deaths. It has become a national disgrace that people in Australia in the 21st century have had to watch their ranking go from 30th to 60th in terms of broadband because this lot could not manage a chook raffle in a pub. It is unfair that people have to give up their homes, give up their businesses and move to other areas—

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I 100 per cent could organise one!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You might have run a chook raffle, yes!—to give up their businesses, to give up their homes and move to other areas because they cannot get access to what is considered one of the most basic needs of the 21st century, which is proper, fast broadband.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always good to be acknowledged, even though I am the member for Swan. If they do ever name an electorate 'Irons' I will be very thankful for that. I thank the member for McEwen. When the member for Bradfield was talking about Labor's failures, one of things he mentioned was the insulation scheme. That is when I raised the point about the four deaths. I have just heard the member for McEwen raising the deaths of two people on the NBN project, which is an absolute tragedy. It does not condone anything that has happened before it or gone after it, and it is something that we should prevent. I do not think that in that situation that should be saying that we condone the four deaths because there are two deaths on the NBN. I cannot agree with you on that one.

Getting back to the MPI. I always wonder why the Labor Party raise own goals. The MPI for them today is an own goal, if we look at what was happening in Western Australia with the NBN prior to the 2013 election. I will go back to a question that is relevant to today's debate, when we are talking about black holes. They asked the then Minister for Communications, who is now the Prime Minister, a question about the construction of the NBN in my electorate of Swan. His response was:

I thank the honourable member for his question and I can well understand the frustration and disappointment of his constituents—

from the previous government.

There was a $31-billion black hole advised to the Labor government at the end of 2010—

it seems to have a familiar ring for the Labor Party, the black hole—

and, regrettably, quite a few truths have vanished into it.

One of them was the true state of the broadband rollout by the NBN. In fact, as the honourable member said, in October 2011 the then government announced that construction had commenced in East Victoria Park and Burswood. Two years later there is no ready-for-service premises in those areas. Indeed, despite barrels of propaganda, reams of leaflets and flyers, and lots of claims, on election day in total there were—

guess how many?—

34 brownfield premises in Perth connected to the fibre network—

after six years. What sort of delivery is that? I see that the members on the opposite side have gone very quiet now. In the six years since they announced the NBN rollout there were 34 connected brownfield premises—and they talk about delivery now. They stand here and say we have not delivered.

I can tell them what the number of connections in Western Australia are now. Just a couple of weeks ago the Minister for Communications came over, and the member for Hasluck and I switched on the first fibre-to-the-node area in Western Australia. This means that residents at 7,000 premises in one part of my electorate will now be able to place an order for the NBN—and that is on top of the 26,000 who already can. Between 2013, when there were only 34 brownfield connections in the whole of Perth under Labor's so-called NBN, and now, in my electorate alone there are over 30,000 premises that are available to connect to the NBN—and they raise an MPI saying we are not delivering! That is just an absolute joke.

To get back to their joke of a system: Labor left WA completely stranded in 2013. Their NBN project was such a shocking mess that the construction contractors in Western Australia refused to continue building. They pulled out of their contract with the Labor government—not with the Liberal coalition government, with the Labor government. Syntheocontractors pulled out. In 2013, Syntheo, the company contracted to build the NBN in WA and South Australia, also handed back 47 sites in Western Australia which Labor had listed as under construction. Can you believe that? They had listed 47 sites as under construction in 2013, and not one of them had a single piece of NBN material in them—nothing at all. What a joke. What a joke this MPI this. It is an absolute joke.

After the election we corrected the maps. There were maps for the electorate of Swan that had connections, work and construction being done everywhere. We went and corrected those maps to what they were. We then had people ringing my office saying, 'We've been taken off the NBN map.' They were not taken off the NBN map because had never been on it. Labor had put them on the NBN map—I am not going to use the word; it is unparliamentary—when they were not even on it. They were not even scheduled to be on that map.

Again, this MPI is an absolute joke. It is another own goal for Labor, so they can bring it on every day. Let's talk about your delivery, your policies and your lack of performance. Do not listen to what Labor is saying; look at what they actually did, which is absolutely nothing. (Time expired)

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking about this government's failure to deliver on the NBN for Australians. In particular, I would like to talk about those Australians living in regional and rural areas, who have especially been hit hard by this government's failings on the NBN. In country areas they blame the Prime Minister; they blame the coalition, and they especially blame the National Party for this dire situation—this lack of NBN.

I think this is one of the issues constituents speak to me about the most—this government's failure to provide for my electorate on the north coast of New South Wales. Constituents tell me that they are constantly frustrated that they cannot get any decent internet access. There are very slow speeds and lots of buffering. Just the other day a mother was telling me that her daughter, who is at university, often has to access a lot of her research material using her phone because the internet is so bad. It is a horrendous situation that they are not able to access the NBN in this day and age. What they are even more annoyed about is not only that they cannot access the NBN; they also only have a promise of a second-rate NBN through copper. That is all they have to look forward to. So instead of connecting Australia to the many great possibilities of the digital future with fibre optic cable, the Turnbull government is instead buying more copper. That is all they are doing.

The fact is that the Prime Minister was a failure as communications minister, and this second-rate NBN is now a total mess. He promised that everyone in the country would get the NBN this year—that is what he said—but more than 83 per cent of the country is still waiting for his second-rate network. He also promised that his version of the NBN would be rolled out faster and cheaper. He promised that his NBN would be built for $29.5 billion, and that cost has almost doubled to $56 billion. In 2013, he promised that his NBN would be rolled out to all homes and businesses by the end of 2016. That has more than doubled by seven years, and now the prediction is 2020. What a blow-out in the time frame. Also in 2013 the Prime Minister said that his second-rate copper NBN would cost $600 per home. This cost has nearly tripled to $1,600 per home.

Make no mistake at all: this disaster was created when the Prime Minister was the communications minister. In his two years as communications minister he did not connect a single paying customer to his fibre-to-the-node network—not one. It is outrageous. What is worse is that where the actual second-rate NBN has been switched on it is not working properly. That is another big issue. So many people are complaining across the country about slow speeds, disrupted services and long delays in getting connected. This is happening everywhere.

What is also really shameful is that Australia has gone backwards in the global broadband rankings yet again. Less than three years ago, Australia was ranked 30th in the world for the average peak connection speed. Where do we rank today? Sixtieth. How embarrassing is that? Australia's broadband ranking crashed 14 spots in the last quarter alone. We are behind most of Asia, most of Europe, the US and Canada. We are even behind Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Poland in terms of our internet connections.

In my electorate we have seen some of the limited rollout of the NBN wireless in some of those smaller areas. This was brought about by a Labor initiative. Also, we have had some satellite for rural areas, which was another Labor initiative in terms of those satellite rollouts. Fortunately, Labor signed the contract for delivery of the satellites before the Liberal-National government was sworn in, because they fought tooth and nail against all these satellites when in opposition. In fact the Prime Minister, I think, called it 'wasteful spending'. Thankfully Labor had the great foresight to commit to the satellites, because that means that people from regional and rural Australia can have the capacity to access high-speed internet. So it is Labor who delivers for regional Australia, not the Liberal-National Party, who were so opposed to these satellites which we now see in action. As I say, that is because of the Labor government.

The fact is that we might have had the roll out, say, in an electorate like mine. But thousands in my electorate are missing out, and that impacts so many people—small business people trying to run their business, students, families and all those educational institutions. They are all suffering because we do not have high-speed internet access. In areas like mine we also have a very strong creative hub. There are lots of film makers and artists—all of whom need the NBN for all their great creative activities. It is right across the community and across all different ages that desperately need to have the NBN in terms of their opportunities and for their families to go forward, and they are just not getting it.

The fact is we cannot have an innovative, agile community focused on job creation unless we have an effective NBN. That is the bottom line, especially in regional and rural areas. So many people move there because there are lots of opportunities. Those opportunities are often stymied because we do not have the NBN rolled out. It is going to take a Labor government to fix this mess that the Liberal-National Party has created with the NBN rollout.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very doubtful, Member for Richmond, that it will take a Labor government to sort out the NBN. It is well on its way. I am a bit of a student of history, particularly on this subject. It is worth remembering that then opposition leader Kevin Rudd went to the 2007 election offering to build an NBN network across Australia for a total sum of $10 billion, $4½ billion of which the government was going to put up and $2 billion of which was to come from the Communications Fund which had been put in place by the Howard government to ensure that rural people were kept up to speed in this advancing age of telecommunications. Kevin Rudd was going to build the network in 2008, and here we are eight years later.

At the time I thought it extremely unlikely that that system could be rolled out for that type of money. I remember Telstra in the seventies rolling out copper right around Australia and in our area where I live in Kimba. It seemed to me that $10 billion was not going to go all that far. The only part of that deal that ever got delivered of course was the taking of the $2 billion from the Communications Fund. But, not to be daunted, then Prime Minister Rudd utilised the back of a coaster on an aeroplane to come up with a proposal to build a $43 billion fibre-to-the-premises network funded totally by the taxpayer. That turned out to be a total shemozzle.

There were a few high-profile announcements around Australia when selected little communities were hooked up to fibre to the premises. The government rattled on about what a wonderful job they were doing. But by the time the coalition came to office, as was so well pointed out by the member for Swan, the rollout was at a standstill. The hook-up figures were just pure fiction. Over $6 billion had been spent on wages and salaries in nbn co alone, and fewer than 100,000 premises had been passed by the fibre. In Western Australia and South Australia the lead contractor, Syntheo, had pulled out of the contract. Once again, I thank the member for Swan for bringing that to the House's attention. The work had completely stopped. It had stalled.

The interim satellite system that the member for Richmond spoke about so fondly a few minutes ago has cost Australia $351 million. In fact, Australians were told 250,000 people would be able to hook onto that satellite, but it crashed at 48,000 because Senator Conroy had not bothered to put any caps on the consumption.

So when Minister Turnbull took over the NBN he got rid of the board that had no-one with any telecommunications skills on it and appointed a new board. He commissioned an inquiry that predicted that the NBN as proposed by the Labor Party would cost $90 billion. The new NBN board redesigned the NBN using multiple technologies, which is when we came to the position of using fibre to the node, fibre to the premises, fixed wireless, satellites and a whole concoction of different methods using the existing cables that were operating in cities at the time.

Now we have come to a stage in my electorate where I have 13 fibre-to-the-node communities that are under construction or completed. There are seven more to come in the next six months. I have 28 communities served by fixed wireless. That rollout is 61 per cent completed, covering more than 370,000 households. Port Augusta has been switched on to the fibre-to-the-node network. A satellite came online just last week. This will be a huge change— (Time expired)

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has concluded. I thank the member for Grey for his contribution. To have robust debate is one thing. I think a slanging match does nothing for the edification or good graces of the parliament. Members might like to think about their contributions as far as substance and the personal go.