Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Less than 20 kilometres from Parliament House, in the nation's capital, in 2018, Canberrans are battling with upload and download speeds of less than one megabit per second. In some parts, it is less than 0.5 megabits per second. In some parts they don't know what it is because they can't do a speed test. This means Alison in Isabella Plains has to tether her personal hotspot from her mobile to run her small business, which has sent her bills through the roof.

Canberra was only one big blank space on the rollout map until about this time last year. We rejoiced at finally making the grade after years of campaigning. We were, however, less than thrilled that most of Canberra would receive fibre to the node, but we were looking forward to the NBN finally, finally, finally rolling out, only to get the news in January this year that the rollout was going to be delayed by another six months to later this year, and only to then get the news, less than two weeks later, that the rollout was going to be delayed a further six months, for a total of 12 months, to 2019.

So we are not happy—we are very not happy—with the news this week that the Lodge is getting fibre to the curb and it's getting it this year, while the rest of us in Canberra have to content ourselves with fibre to the node in years to come. It is unacceptable, and it shows the government's complete and utter disdain for Canberra. (Time expired)