Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman released its annual report for 2016. The report further revealed the extent of the failure of the Turnbull government's second-rate NBN. There has been a 160 per cent increase in complaints to the TIO. There were four times as many complaints made in regard to the telecommunications industry as there were in regard to the banking and finance industry.

Launceston had the dubious honour of having the highest rate of NBN complaints in Tasmania, and, frankly, I am not surprised, given the prevalence of the run-around between NBN Co. and retail service providers. My office is inundated with complaints about homes left without usable internet or landline connections and the lack of coordination between wholesaler and retailer. We saw a prime example of service failure in Launceston recently which was publicised in the local newspaper, with an unacceptable outage of services faced by Wiseguise Pizza, local entrepreneurs who, like all businesses, need a reliable connection in order to run their business.

It's just not good enough that you have businesses that rely upon telecommunications services to sustain their operations suffering from service failures and a run-around as to who is responsible. We all know that vulnerable people like our elderly rely upon the connection provided by telecommunications providers for a range of things, including life-saving medical services. The TIO report is a damning indictment on the federal Liberal government and their failed NBN— (Time expired)