Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1)notes that:

(a)after six years of the previous Labor Government, just 51,000 users were connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN);

(b)under the Liberal National Coalition Government, over 60,000 premises are being connected to the NBN every two weeks; and

(c)the network roll out is scheduled to be completed in 2020;

(2)welcomes NBN Co's announcement that the NBN is now available to more than 10 million homes and businesses; and

(3)congratulates the Government for adopting a broadband roll out plan which will see the NBN completed four years early and for $30 billion less than had Labor's approach been continued—meaning that Australians will get access to fast broadband services more quickly, and at lower prices, than what would have occurred under Labor's plan.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Broadband Network has well and truly arrived in my electorate of Boothby. Thanks to our government, more than 95,500 premises in my community are ready for service and almost 54,000 are already connected to the NBN. Nationally, the NBN is now available to more than 10.6 million homes and businesses, with over 5.8 million active connections providing fast and affordable internet across Australia.

One of those connections belongs to Gary Paradise and his team at Concept Data, a fantastic local business in my electorate, in the suburb of Torrens Park. Concept Data are providing innovative IT solutions to clients and using the National Broadband Network to do so. I recently visited Concept Data with the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts and representatives from the NBN Co to hear direct from Gary about how their connection to the NBN means they can deliver a better service for their customer base, which includes some of South Australia's biggest brand names. I'd like to take this opportunity to recognise the minister for his commitment to listening to the experiences of business owners like Gary and for the minister's hard work to resolve the NBN rollout challenges that we inherited from those opposite.

The coalition government is connecting more users to the NBN every two weeks than Labor connected in six years of government. I'll just repeat that: we're connecting more people to the NBN every two weeks than those opposite managed to connect in six years of government. Those opposite, the former Labor government, missed every rollout target they set themselves and they connected just 51,000 premises to the fixed-line network in six years. Labor's fibre-to-the premises NBN policy would have cost $30 billion more and taken six to eight years longer to complete. This would have increased broadband bills by up to $500 per year. Labor paid $6 billion for the NBN to pass just two per cent of Australian premises. The rollout was so badly managed that contractors downed tools and stopped construction work in four states.

In stark contrast, all Australians will be able to connect to the NBN by 2020 under the coalition government. In regional Australia, the NBN rollout is over 99 per cent complete or under construction, and in metro areas the rollout is more than 93 per cent complete or under construction. We're now rolling out a multitechnology mix just like the USA, UK, Germany, France and many other countries. This multitechnology mix will include fibre to the node, fibre to the curb, fibre to the premises, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite. We're rolling out better broadband across Australia in the fastest and most affordable way so Australians can get access to fast broadband sooner at a price they can afford. The coalition's changes to the NBN rollout have saved taxpayers around $30 billion, avoided a $43 increase in monthly internet bills and will connect all Australians six to eight years sooner. As you can see, our government is delivering on our commitment and delivering NBN for all Australians.

Yet, unfortunately, we continue to see misinformation and false claims made in this place and in the media about the rollout of NBN. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify some of this information, as it directly relates to my community. In August, it was reported in the media that suburbs in my electorate, including Somerton Park, Glengowrie, Darlington, Warradale, Oaklands Park, Sturt, Seacombe Gardens, Glenelg, Glenelg North, Glenelg South and Marino, were in NBN limbo. Understandably, this was of great concern to me and residents in my local area, and, as a result, I immediately contacted the minister seeking clarification about the claims. I'm pleased to inform the House today that I've been advised by NBN Co that the majority of premises in my community, specifically in the suburbs I have just listed, are live and ready for service. If you break down the suburbs I have just noted, all but one are live. The majority of these connections were made in 2017-18, and the remaining module will be connected and ready for service by May 2020. NBN Co is working closely to resolve any connection difficulties experienced by individual households and businesses in these areas. I ask anyone needing further assistance to contact my office for help—you are most welcome to do so.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for moving this motion, as it gives me a chance to talk about the disaster that the NBN has been for many residents of Werriwa. Despite the spin, the NBN is a hotchpotch patchwork of a multitechnology mix that will rely on a very aged copper network well into the future. In fact, the copper wires in my suburb have been there for 58 years. This is not a network built for the future; it is a scattergun approach that has been put together by the Liberal government. When the NBN was planned by the Labor Party, it was a network that enabled fibre-to-the-premises connections for nearly all Australians. For those who have that connection, which was provided in the early rollout in my electorate, they have brilliant, high-speeds connections. Unfortunately, too few have fibre to the premises. What they do have is slow, unreliable internet connections reliant on copper connection—if they have an NBN connection at all.

The rollout is ongoing and delayed in Werriwa. Take the suburb of Long Point. Long Point is a suburb in the bushland along the Georges River, and it is heavily reliant on stable connections to the internet so it can be made aware of bushfires and so forth. Long Point is also just one example of many in my electorate and around the country of the failure of the rollout and the multitechnology mix. The people of Long Point have experienced frequent delays that have plagued the installation of the NBN over this small suburb of just three streets. Emails from NBN Co tell of the expected rollout to Long Point in the latter half of 2017. Yet, today in 2019, only a portion of the suburb is actually connected. That's right: it's two years later and most people in that suburb are still waiting for their NBN connection. The latest problem, I'm told, is an infrastructure shortfall that is expected to be fixed by 2020. The NBN has provided the following explanation to me: 'This service area appears to be ready for the service, and most premises will receive NBN by fibre-to-the-node or HFC technology. There are a small number of premises within the fibre-to-the-node footprint that are unable to receive a connection.' The email continues: 'In this instance, the distance of some of these premises from the NBN network means we can't connect properly, in the same way as we have connected others, because of the length of the copper. The signal degrades other distance, and it wouldn't be possible to achieve a service that meets the minimum requirements. At this stage, the expected service availability date is January 2020.' So, three years after Long Point was originally scheduled for connection, some of the residents may get internet speeds of 25 megabits per second—hardly First World speeds for 15 kilometres away from Liverpool, and another example of why copper is not one of the best options.

We have constituents who often have to go outside to find higher ground just to make phone calls. We have parents who are worried that a lack of internet access will mean their kids will fall behind in school, and there are university students who can't access multimedia and upload assignments.

The NBN Co's own figures from February this year show that while the number of premises connected has increased by 38 per cent, speeds were still slow and certainly not up to standard. Australia is now ranked 62nd in the world in internet speeds, falling yet another three spots since 2018. The Ookla speedtest global index has Australia behind Kazakhstan and Cape Verde. It was the Liberal government that moved the majority of the network to fibre to the node, forcing the majority of users to rely on the aged copper network. It was then in 2016, under the same Liberal government, that fibre to the kerb was announced as another way to deliver the NBN, again relying on copper wiring.

The internet is meant to connect people through technology, not unite communities and connect people through sheer frustration at the complete failure of government policy. It's sad that in 20 years' time my constituents will still be relying on the copper network, a network that slows or becomes unusable just because it rains, a network that becomes nearly unusable just because it's between 7.00 pm and 10.00 pm at night and the copper lines can't deal with the connection. Patchwork quilts won't serve a community, patchwork quilts won't deliver high-speed internet and patchwork quilts actually have a purpose and it's not for the delivery of NBN. The government really does need to do better.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by thanking the member for Boothby for the opportunity to speak on this motion and moving it for discussion in the Federation Chamber, least because it's important to have an honest conversation about the National Broadband Network. Deputy Speaker, I don't want to leave you under any illusion.

I remember when Kevin Rudd first came up with the idea. When he thought the best thing that he could do was inject a giant monopoly into infrastructure investment, actively discouraging private investment and telecommunication companies to invest in a network to make sure that Australians had high-speed internet and to say, 'No, no, the government knows best.' I remember that moment and thinking, 'This isn't going to go so well.' And the reality is that is the legacy of the Labor Party and its National Broadband Network in the years it was in office.

Over years, despite the number of written-down notes on the back of aeroplane napkins—written between abusing flight attendant staff—the reality is that in the six years of the previous Labor government just 51,000 users were connected to the NBN. To put that in perspective, it's a third of the Goldstein electorate. What they thought, with the hubris and the arrogance that sat behind their agenda, was that by dissuading and discouraging private investment they would lead, and somehow be able to build, this perfect utopia. It's a monument to the failure of socialism in one project. They will always stand condemned because Australians have gad worse internet, because of their legacy, ever since, and our job has been to fix their failure. I get angry about this, because when you get the chairman of Telstra coming out and saying, 'If you hadn't have gone down this mad path from the get go, Australians would have had better, cheaper, faster internet.' They actively encouraged the digital divide because of their hubris and their arrogance. Some of us need to call it out.

Since we have been in government we have, at every step, been fixing their mess. Under the Liberal-National coalition government over 60,000 premises are being connected to the NBN every two weeks. You compare that to 51,000 over the entire life of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government and you see the exposed sham of their agenda and why we need to stand up and be clear. But it doesn't change the fact that their active discouragement of private investment, their active dissuasion of getting Australians to invest in the future of internet technology in our country, still has lasting impacts. Every day I talk to constituents who have to deal with the consequences of Labor's bad policy decisions.

We now have more than 10 million homes and businesses connected to the National Broadband Network and we need to continue the rollout. Now we have to make sure that everybody has access to the sorts of technologies that we have. That's why we congratulate the government on its legacy of fixing Labor's failure and fixing the problems that they created which meant that they actively discouraged private investment into the sector. This government, at every point, has shown that prudence and responsibility can still be in vogue.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:30