Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the importance of reliable communications services for rural and regional Australia;

(2) notes the launch of the Sky Muster satellites in 2015 and 2016 as a way of connecting rural and regional Australia to the National Broadband Network; and

(3) congratulates NBN Co on the introduction of the Sky Muster Plus service, providing unmetered data for activities including some web browsing, select emailing and PC and Smartphone operating system software updates.

Communication is essential to life. While urban and metropolitan Australians often take access to digital and mobile communications for granted, those of us who live in regional and rural settings find ourselves frequently unable to access a reliable signal or internet connections. Farming communities across my electorate of Mallee are frustrated when connection to the internet or getting a phone signal is a struggle. People who live in regional and rural communities deserve to have access to digital connectivity as much their counterparts in the city do.

I have 561 blackspots in Mallee, and I will continue to advocate for more base stations to be established. Reliable and accessible phone and internet connections play a vital role in every aspect of our regional lives. They allow farmers access to global markets for their products, networking with agronomists and other agricultural specialists to improve their business, and to complete business needs, such as superannuation. In remote communities, they also increase access to services, such as School of the Air and telehealth. The future of telehealth cannot be overestimated, in terms of saving lives, breaking through the hazards of isolation, and saving patients' time, money and energy.

The National-Liberal government's Mobile Black Spot Program is making significant inroads in improving connectivity for many in the regions, with new base stations and towers being installed. I was very pleased to be with the Deputy PM, Michael McCormack, and Minister Coulton recently to announce the 750th black spot tower at Nullawil in Mallee, one of the 41 installed or in the final stages of installation across Mallee.

Improved mobile coverage isn't a solution that only most businesses need. I recently had discussions with NBN Co to make sure they understand that everyone across Mallee should be able to access the NBN as quickly as possible. This may happen through a range of mixed technologies, be it a fibre solution, fixed wireless, Sky Muster or Sky Muster Plus. These connections are vital.

The launch in 2015-16 of the Sky Muster satellites signalled that, as a nation, Australia was taking the next important step towards delivering broadband internet to every Australian, especially those in rural and remote settings. Countries such as South Korea, with a population density of 503 people per square kilometre, make delivery of technology both cost-effective and commercially attractive. In comparison, Australia's population is 3.1 people per square kilometre, which presents significant challenges for the commercial viability of technology and the cost of infrastructure.

The Sky Muster service is an innovative way to deliver broadband internet to those living in remote areas of Australia. This service has resulted in better quality and speed at a lower price point. However, as with many new technologies, its initial rollout had its flaws. The government received feedback from a wide variety of users since the rollout of Sky Muster. This feedback highlighted issues with the amount of data available to users. Data caps have been an issue for regional small businesses and families on satellite services, and performing everyday tasks is a challenge once users hit their monthly data cap.

I am pleased that NBN Co has responded to these issues and introduced Sky Muster Plus. The government welcomes this product as an important step forward for regional Australians who use the Sky Muster satellite service. It reflects the government's unwavering commitment to supporting regional Australians. Sky Muster Plus delivers peace of mind for rural and remote Australians by providing unmetered data usage for essential broadband activities such as completing schoolwork, banking, accessing health or government services, keeping software up to date and simply staying in touch with work, friends and family.

Those who rely heavily on broadband connectivity can now access these essential services in the knowledge that they will not contribute to a household's monthly data allowance, and they can continue to access these services even if their monthly data limits have been reached. Minister Coulton told me that he uses Sky Muster Plus himself and that it is much better than the original Sky Muster. The Sky Muster Plus service is a great example of the flexibility of the NBN satellites, delivering tailored products to allow consumers— (Time expired)

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the importance of reliable communication services for rural and regional Australia. I thank the member for Mallee for the motion and for bringing attention to this important issue. I absolutely agree that reliable communication services are vital for electorates like mine in regional Australia; however, I would have to say that this is where my agreement on this motion ends. This government's record on communications policy across regional and rural Australia is outrageous. The policies of those opposite are creating a complete digital divide in our communities, the haves and have-nots of digital technology.

The type of technology provided to regional and rural communities like mine matters. The gap between the city and the regions continues to grow. But the government's so-called technology mix is not only creating a divide between the city and the regions; it is creating a divide within towns; it is creating a divide between suburbs; and its creating a divide between neighbours. There are many suburbs in my electorate that have three or more different technologies in individual suburbs. This is fast becoming the norm—a frightening thing. There are suburbs where some houses have fibre to the node; some have fibre to the curb; and some have Sky Muster satellite or fixed wireless. Culburra Beach is just one example of this. It is a great community in my electorate and, as the name might suggest, it is right on the beach. It is a beautiful area on the New South Wales South Coast, but this government's rollout of the NBN is creating a digital divide in this community. The NBN is being rolled out there at the moment, and much of Culburra Beach and Orient Point is receiving fibre to the node, thanks to Malcolm Turnbull and his second-rate NBN.

A few years ago the government all but acknowledged this failing and decided to introduce fibre to the curb, the superior technology to fibre to the node—nothing compared with Labor's original fibre-to-the-premises plan but an improvement nonetheless. Here is the tricky part: instead of completely scaling back the fibre-to-the-node plan and replacing it with fibre to the curb, the government inconceivably just decided to roll out both. So what is the consequence of this? In Culburra Beach the consequence is that one side of the street has a better technology than the other. One neighbour is locked into the ageing and deteriorating copper to the node and the other has fibre all the way up to the curb. This brings a whole new meaning to the term 'digital divide'. The divide is no longer just between city and region; it is between neighbour and neighbour.

There is absolutely no doubt that this will have a flow-on effect: it will impact house prices; it will impact businesses; and it will impact students and families. The government had a choice. They had the choice to abandon their second-rate fibre-to-the-node rollout. They had the choice to scale up fibre to the curb and make sure that as many houses as possible had access to the better technology. Instead, they have chosen to do both—a decision that the people of Culburra Beach and Orient Point cannot comprehend. It's a decision that they will now have to live with, and they will be the ones to deal with the consequences.

The technology mix NBN rollout of this government is a failure. In August an Infrastructure Australia audit stated:

The technology mix for the NBN has diversified, meaning different users will receive different types of connections. This change will deliver varied outcomes for users, and some may shoulder higher costs or receive lower-quality services.

Australia is ranked last out of 36 OECD countries on entry-level fixed broadband affordability. We are being left behind. These are problems that won't go away. These are problems that this government created and has left communities like that of Culburra Beach and Orient Point to deal with. Those opposite have had opportunity after opportunity to fix the mess. This motion wants to show that the government has helped to improve things for regional and rural Australia's communications, but we know that Sky Muster satellites are expensive, unreliable and causing more divide, not less.

This government has failed rural and regional Australia with its communications policy. Those opposite simply seem uninterested in fixing the problems they have created. It is time the government took real action to address these problems for people like those in Culburra Beach. Our community deserves to have the technology of the future. We deserve better than a government that is dividing neighbours with poor policy and poor choices.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is interesting to listen to the member for Gilmore and her very negative outlook on the world, I must say, as she leaves the chamber. Towards the end of her speech, she rounded on the satellite service, saying it was second-rate and substandard. It was interesting because my opening remarks were going to be a little bit about the history of the NBN. It originally was designed of course by Kevin Rudd on the back of an envelope to be built for $4 billion, and he immediately hoovered $2 billion up out of the national Future Fund for communications in the regions. That said, former minister for communications Malcolm Turnbull said that we would have never built a system like this but we were bequeathed it by the former government.

I was going to say in relation to the member for Gilmore's remarks that I said at the time that the smartest thing that the Labor regime did was order two new satellites, because there will always be parts of Australia that will never be reached by a fibre optic cable. I say to the member for Gilmore, 'Come and have a look at my electorate, and you will understand how important the satellite service is.' In fact, it's working very well. Initially with the Sky Muster satellite my office was fielding quite a number of complaints. There were teething issues. When you roll out new technology of any type it takes a while to knock the bugs out of it. They had to reprogram some of the software. 'Beam me up, Scotty.' We fixed up the satellites and away we went. Then we found that we have more capacity than we need. Perhaps that was because of the insight of the former Labor regime. They should take credit for it. Now we've been able to increase the size of packages available to homes and, through Sky Muster Plus, we've been able to increase the speeds to businesses that require greater input.

I'm pleased to announce that just this afternoon the Ramsey household at Buckleboo became consumers of Sky Muster. We've taken a little while to get ourselves hooked up. My wife today has been dealing with these issues. She called me about half an hour ago to say, 'I'm on.' I said, 'How's it going?' She said, 'Hang on, I'll check some sites. It's very good. It's far better than what we've had.' We had been using a mobile phone service with a tall aerial on our house and a Telstra smart aerial fitted inside. It worked better than the old landline system, but this is streets ahead again. A download speed of 25 megabits is pretty good at the Ramsey household.

But there are other things that we've been doing for regional communications. Those opposite might listen to this. We are investing in the mobile phone network. This has been a really serious job for this government. Only this side of the chamber has invested in the mobile phone network in regional Australia. More than 800 towers have come about as a consequence of the Mobile Black Spot Program. It is a fantastic outcome. There's more to come. There are another two rounds. In my own electorate I think about 30 new towers have been built under the program. Of course I'm still getting complaints from people who are in-between. I understand that, but there is an economic imperative when you build mobile phone towers to have some kind of return on them. The government's Mobile Black Spot Program does provide the financial incentive.

A number of new technologies are being developed. Small cells are now allowing for backfill in some of these regions. I think the network will keep getting better. With the launch of the new low-orbiting satellites by Southern Launch from just near Port Lincoln, with any kind of luck we will see another range of communication satellites come into being over the next five or 10 years. All these things are changing every day as technology does. It's important that we adapt as it comes along. But I have to say that, when I look back from where we are now to when we came to government, I see that we have made enormous strides, whether it be in mobile phone technology or with the rollout of the NBN network. I point out that my electorate of Grey is over 99 per cent enabled—over 99 per cent are ready to connect—and we've had about 50 per cent connect at this stage. It will obviously take a little time, but we'll get over that. (Time expired)

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take the opportunity in this debate today to touch on some of the matters raised in the motion moved by the member for Mallee and talk more generally about major regional cities and the NBN rollout in my area. When the Labor government proposed the rollout for the seat of Cunningham there was no requirement for the satellite based technology. All of my area was being covered by the rollout of fibre. However, when those opposite came to government and introduced the mixed technology solution—which was supposedly going to be so much cheaper but, I will point out, has ended up being so much more expensive—I ended up with one area in my electorate that was put onto the satellite service, Darkes Forest. The previous speaker commented about the nature of seats like his own, which cover huge broad expanses. But Darkes Forest is probably an hour from Sydney. It's in the northern part of the electorate, halfway between Sydney and Wollongong. It's certainly not out in the broad expanse of the Australian continent. The premises in this area are listed as 'ready to connect', but the technology available through the Sky Muster satellite service is a poor second choice for many people when they considered they were getting the fibre solution originally.

The area has little to no mobile coverage, and many residents have already been experimenting with satellite solutions themselves—at a significant cost, obviously. They found the satellite options to be unreliable, slow and temperamental, depending on weather. So they are very concerned and they have been raising with me their concerns that the Sky Muster service is costly and insufficient to their needs. So they're certainly not pleased that they were moved under this new technology mix, away from getting fibre, to a satellite service.

The other consistent problem that is raised with me—and we have just about completed the rollout in my region—is that there are places where the fibre-to-the-node solution is leaving streets, individual houses and business areas unconnected and not able to be activated because of the copper in the ground, the quality of the copper or the distance they are from the node. The Port Kembla business chamber are constantly raising with me the very poor NBN service and the drop-outs they get, mainly because they were on the fibre-to-the-node rollout. Phone lines can be down for days, even weeks, particularly if there's heavy rain and there are impacts on the pits. This is a very serious impact on their businesses.

The most common complaints from individuals are around the extended delays to the rollout due to copper lines being too far from the node cabinet. For example, Raquel from Mount Kembla, applied for the NBN in November 2018 and was told it would take six months. She was then given a completion date of August this year. That date came and went, and she was still not ready. The completion date was pushed back to December this year. In early September contractors attended her premises for equipment tagging and advised her it would take another two weeks for the work to be completed, but the NBN could not advise her that it would actually be completed. It was just an absolute disruption to their lives and it took far longer than it needed to. She was particularly angry about the failure of anyone to take accountability and to communicate effectively with her as a consumer. Many of us could appreciate that. When you have to take time off work and make these appointments and people don't turn up, or people you didn't expect turn up, it can be very frustrating.

James Lancaster of Coaldale has been trying to get connected to the premises since he moved there in April 2017. His neighbours are actually connected. He has no ADSL service. Mobile reception is almost nonexistent, even with a booster. Every time he contacts NBN, they say it will be six months, then another six months, then another six months. My office has been chasing it up and have been told it won't be at least until January 2020. This is a gentleman who is sitting in a street where his neighbours have it, so there's still much work to be done. I particularly want to reflect my constituents' concerns that the quality of communication and engagement with people could be vastly improved.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have heard from many speakers this afternoon on the importance of regional connectivity and regional communications. I think we are all agreed that it is a critical issue. As a member representing a very large electorate, 860,000 square kilometres, I think I'm in a pretty good position to comment. I want to highlight some of the reasons it's such an important issue for regional people.

Firstly, the liveability of our communities: people who live in our regional and remote communities deserve to have access to the enjoyable things in life, just like everybody else. If they come home from work they need to have the capacity to be able to turn on the TV and watch a streaming service, whether it be Netflix, Stan or one of those sorts of services. So liveability is important.

There is business. There's a lot of business conducted in regional communities across my electorate, whether they be mining communities, farming communities or individual farmers. Some of these are quite large businesses, and they need to have the capacity to conduct their business over the internet.

And of course, possibly the most important issue about regional connectivity is the safety of our regional communities. We've seen bushfires, recently, where people need to be absolutely informed of the situation on the ground at a given time. Unfortunately, we have road accidents along the coast. Unfortunately, all too often, we have people washed into the water, and so we need to have that connectivity across our regional communities.

That connectivity is made up of two components. The first of those components is phones and mobile phone connectivity. I am very, very proud that my electorate of O'Connor has been the major beneficiary of the Mobile Black Spot Program. We had the member for Grey speaking a few moments ago. He said his electorate had received 30 mobile phone towers under our three current rounds. I can report that the seat of O'Connor has received 129 mobile phone black spot towers. While I'll claim all of the credit, the fact is that the previous Barnett Western Australian government co-funded with the Commonwealth government many of those towers, which gave Western Australia a big head start when we were applying for those mobile phone black spots. We are getting near the end of that program. We're down to the last few towers.

There's a couple where I'm very proud of the work that I've done to get them across the line. The mobile phone tower at Ocean Beach in Denmark, one of the premier holiday locations in Western Australia—we had 11 sites rejected by the Denmark shire before we could finally find a suitable site for that particular mobile phone tower. I know that the owners of the Ocean Beach caravan park, where I take my family every year, are over the moon that, finally, the up to 3,000 people that are in that caravan park at the peak of summer will have a mobile phone signal. So that's a great result.

The other tower that caused us a lot of angst and took some work to get across the line was the tower at Salmon Holes. Salmon Holes is a very popular fishing spot just around the coast from Albany. Unfortunately, in the last decade we've seen six people washed off the rocks there and lose their life. The coroner had recommended very strongly that better communications be put into that site. Once again, trying to find a suitable location that was compliant with the Department of Parks and Wildlife's national park, which surrounds that area, was fairly challenging. Thankfully AMSA, who owned a decommissioned lighthouse site on the coast, handed that over to DPAW. They have now made that old lighthouse available for us to mount a mobile phone tower. So we are finally going to get the connectivity off the south coast that we so badly need.

In the last 30 seconds, I want to talk about Sky Muster and Sky Muster Plus. The Sky Muster service is not a Rolls-Royce service—I'll be the first to agree with that. It's much better than the satellite service that we inherited when I was first elected in 2013. The Sky Muster Plus initiative is going to give families much more data and much more access to data to conduct those daily tasks like homework, business and so on, without impacting on their data usage.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm conflicted about congratulating NBN for their Sky Muster satellite service. On the one hand, I do want to acknowledge that the launch of the Sky Muster satellites in 2015 and 2016 has vastly improved the delivery of satellite NBN services and customer satisfaction with the service. The original satellite service was not a success. The constant dropouts and slow speeds did enormous damage to the reputation of the technology, and NBN Co is paying the price for that now. Unfortunately, due to these early experiences my community views satellite as an inferior product. They're not mincing their words, expressing their views in the calls and emails to my office, and then telling me in person at the NBN sessions I've been holding across my community in recent months.

The NBN representatives have assured me and my community that the launch of the Sky Muster satellites in 2015-16 has improved the service. More needs to be done to articulate that message. With my NBN information sessions I've certainly attempted to help spread the message; however, it is a hard sell. Essentially, people are now paying a premium for their service when just down the road their neighbour has fixed line NBN and is paying much less for unlimited data. Rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that satellite customers still have to pay for a landline if they want a reliable voice service. This is essential in my community of Mayo, which encompasses some of the highest-risk bushfire zones in South Australia, and where we still have more than 130 mobile phone blackspots. Mobile phone technology is not part of the universal service guarantee, but our community considers mobile phones to be an essential service, and rightly so. We need to continue with the Mobile Black Spot Program and with pursuing bespoke solutions for different communities. Cherry Gardens has advocated for such a bespoke solution. I've been pleased to work with that community and the state Liberal MP, the member for Davenport, and the federal minister, the member for Parkes, to set up 4G equipment on the existing NBN tower. My Centre Alliance colleagues and I have been pleased to advocate for funding for this project and we look forward to its official launch.

I acknowledge and welcome the launch of the Sky Muster Plus service, which provides unmetered data for activities such as emailing and web browsing. This will help regional communities, which need to continually function in a digital world, especially if the teenager in the house uses up the household's data allowance on Netflix—and I have a couple of those in my house, so it goes down quickly! But this product doesn't compensate for the fact that far more households in Mayo are being placed on satellite technology than the national average of three per cent. I've been advised that 5,630 premises have been assigned satellite technology in my community, which represents more than five per cent of my community.

Our community is close to the city. Some can see the CBD, the outline of Adelaide, from their front porch, but they've been assigned satellite. One such neighbourhood was promised fibre to the node. Only two months ago they found that they were allocated satellite, because the technicians hit rock and it was going to be too expensive to dig. That is not acceptable. I have nearly 500 residents in Mylor who have been promised wireless NBN for more than two years now. Thanks to a deal falling through with a landowner over a tower site, they are now most likely going to get satellite. I say most likely, because they still can't get a decision out of NBN. I would like to take this opportunity to again urge NBN Co to make a decision for the Mylor community, prior to Christmas.

I have spoken to the regional services minister about my community's expectations. I acknowledge that NBN has been a boon for the many communities that have had to put up with poor and non-existent ADSL broadband. ADSL was so bad for one member of my community, in Bridgewater, that he doorknocked neighbours to ask if he could put antennas on their roofs. He now has NBN fixed line and runs a tech company from his home. I would like to thank NBN for coming to my community to host information sessions. I particularly thank Kym Morgan, who has been to every single one of the sessions, even when the community has naturally and rightfully been fired up and wanting to talk about NBN.

NBN has been something of a lottery for my community. Like all major infrastructure projects, I believe it should be built once and built well. There are issues in our community that we can work together on, and I'm sure that NBN will come to the table. We need to fix Mylor and we need to fix Crafers and we can do this; it's not above us.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:09