Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Industrial Conveying Australia are an advanced manufacturing business in my electorate. They are 4.5 kilometres from the CBD of Bendigo. They have roughly 90 employees. They deal with very large data files. They communicate regularly with their clients overseas, yet they are being crippled because of a lack of decent internet. Yet this government is refusing to do anything to support them. They've raised their issues with NBN Co through their telco. I've raised their issues with NBN through the telco. I've also written to the minister on several occasions.

The first letter back was the standard blank response. It didn't even address the issues that Industrial Conveying Australia has. Then I raised it here in question time. What I got as a response from the minister was a nasty letter saying that it was the telco's fault, not NBN Co's fault. This business is in an area where, on one side of the property, it says that it's fixed wireless, and on the other side of the property it says that it is satellite. Guess what? The minister said: 'They should go back. It's the telco's fault. They can get fixed wireless.' Guess what? The company has had a cherry picker out there trying to get some kind of signal from the fixed wireless. It doesn't work. Bendigo Telco have done everything they can to help this business connect to the NBN, yet it can't. This minister needs to be held to account for not only his rude correspondence with constituents in my electorate but his failure to roll out the NBN. (Time expired)