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

From Redcliffe to Launceston, Mittagong to Newcastle and in my own electorate of Whitlam, businesses are pulling their hair out because of problems they are facing with the NBN. It is nothing short of a crisis. On Friday, 15 September, the member for Cunningham and I will be convening a crisis summit of businesses in the Illawarra and South Coast to deal with the real issues that the government is ignoring. Last week the Executive Director of the Illawarra Business Chamber, Chris Lamont, had this to say:

Feedback from members indicates that unreliable telecommunications that are dysfunctional for lengthy periods of time is putting their business at risk and in some cases has caused them to go out of business entirely.

The government's response is to stick their head in a bucket of sand. Businesses in my electorate—and I know in yours, Deputy Speaker Claydon, because I have visited them with you personally—do not have that luxury. They are seeing money and customers walk out the door because their phone lines won't work and because their internet services won't work—all from a government that promised an NBN that would be faster, better and cheaper. The government has failed on each of these three measures.

We can't wait till the next election, we need solutions now. So the member for Cunningham and I will be looking for solutions with businesses at the business summit in our electorate.