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

Another day, another NBN tale of woe in Canberra. First, we weren't even on the NBN rollout map. We were just one big blank space. Second, when we finally did get on the map, we kept getting moved further to the right in terms of the actual rollout. Those lucky enough to get the rollout have had all sorts of headaches, such as technicians who are meant to turn up never turning up.

I have this story of Canberran Brian Kiel. He contacted me about his experience. Brian is part of Legacy's IT committee. He's preparing a report outlining recommendations for moving Legacy onto the NBN. The report is to go before the Canberra Legacy Board. The building is located in Deakin, where the NBN is currently being rolled out. Brian was interested in getting the building directly connected by fibre instead of relying on fibre to the node. He understood that this would need to be paid for, so he contacted NBN Co to get a quote on how much that would cost and to see if the building met the requirements. Guess how much Brian was told? He was told it was $660. To his surprise, that was not to actually connect; that's the cost of making an application for an initial quote. The quote itself will attract an additional fee. It's $660 to apply to get an answer to a question.

This is absolutely outrageous. Canberrans and our community organisations are paying a small fortune just to get their foot in the door to ask a question of NBN Co. (Time expired)