Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to say a few words about internet speeds and internet connection in the electorate of Lilley and the northern suburbs of Brisbane.

Earlier this year, I was contacted by residents of a new estate, Brighton Landing, regarding the lack of broadband internet in the area. This was a new estate that did not even have access to ADSL. These new estate residents had expected to have the NBN, but of course they were unaware that that had been cancelled by the Turnbull government or the Abbott government and that nothing was being rolled out in the area. They did not have ADSL, so they were simply left high and dry—with no prospect of the NBN being rolled out in their area.

I know this is not uncommon right around the country. So they were facing a very long wait for internet coverage. They were too far from the exchange; Telstra was reluctant. After spending some time with Telstra I managed to persuade them that they could find a solution to the distance from the exchange, which they have now found. So at least the residents of Brighton Landing will have access to ADSL.

I do not know how long they will have to wait for the full rollout of the NBN, because that is such a disaster. The Turnbull government announced in the last couple of weeks that the HFC network—which was going to be the backbone of the new NBN across something like two-thirds to three-quarters of the area that I represent—is also cancelled. So residents in those areas which were not fortunate enough to get fibre to the premises—that is about 25 per cent of the area I represent—are now still waiting, not knowing what the technological solution is going to be for their area, and in many cases with no idea of when the new NBN will be rolled out in their area.

Fortunately, about 25,000 homes in the Lilley electorate have fibre to the premises, and those people are very, very fortunate—suburbs such as Aspley, Banyo, Bridgeman Downs, Northgate, Nudgee, Nudgee Beach, Nundah, Pinkenba, Taigum, Virginia and Zillmere. But almost everywhere else people are waiting.

This is a huge problem for people who are operating home based businesses in those suburbs—a huge problem. It is a huge problem for kids who are trying to do their high school assignments. And of course when both happen in the house at the same time and the connectivity is so low, this is an incredible challenge for those families. I have been to childcare centres where they are running their businesses on a hot spot through their mobile phones because their connectivity is so low. Also, even though we are so relatively close to the city there are significant sectors of my electorate which do not have decent mobile phone coverage either.

So these issues of being able to connect are essential issues of the capacity to do business and for kids to actually progress at school. But these are people who have been left behind in the digital backwater—in a broadband backwater—by the shemozzle of the Turnbull government. (Time expired)