Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week we saw the release of damning figures about customer complaints regarding the NBN. In April we heard the Minister for Communications say that 2017 would be the year of the consumer. Well, I'm sad to inform the House that, as of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman complaints figures of 2016, complaints have surged by 159 per cent, when compared with the previous period. Of significant concern, NBN complaints are growing 37 per cent faster than the number of new NBN services being activated—a pattern not observed in any of the previous years.

I rise to bring to the attention to the House just how dire the circumstances are for a number of residents in my electorate of Oxley. I've held a number of crisis meetings that I've updated the parliament about in the Centenary suburbs and Springfield suburbs, areas that have new families moving in and new small businesses operating but that are being crippled by inferior technology that the government is obsessed about rolling out. I note the minister has just arrived in the chamber; I'm delighted that he's here to hear about the concerns of my residents when it comes to the NBN, because all we hear from the government, time and time again, is that it's all in hand, that it's all under control, that the people of Australia should be grateful that we're rolling out an inferior technology.

The week before last I met with senior citizens at a retirement village in Goodna. Once again, the No. 1 topic of concern was the rollout of the NBN. I bring to the attention of the House constituents like Pam, from Sinnamon Park, who has had problem after problem since her NBN was installed in March this year: the service provider blaming the NBN and NBN blaming the service provider, and it's still unresolved. Another of my constituents, Jean of Westlake, finally had her situation resolved last week. However, this was resolved after seven months, with dozens and dozens of pieces of communication—emails and telephone calls—not answered by NBN. And if that isn't bad enough: I've written to the Prime Minister, I've written to the minister and I've written to the CEO of NBN, with no response. Time and time again my constituents are being let down when it comes to the rollout of the NBN by this incompetent government. The community now has had data presented to them in the report last week. It's now time the government started listening.