James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) after 6 years under the previous Labor Government only 51,000 premises were connected to the national broadband network (NBN) at a cost of $6 billion;

(b) today, after 9 years under a Coalition Government, there are over 12 million premises ready to connect to the NBN; and

(c) Australians were only able to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the Coalition Government's rollout of the NBN;

(2) acknowledges that upgrades to the NBN were able to be made only because the Coalition Government adopted a policy of building the NBN quickly using the least cost technology;

(3) further notes that the Government has backflipped on their previous policy of fibre to every premises and adopted the Coalition's upgrade policy but cannot identify how it will be funded; and

(4) calls on the Government to explain how they will fund their NBN policy and whether this will include an added cost to Australians.

What a relief it was that the coalition was elected in September 2013, for many, many reasons but particularly for the fate of the NBN rollout. Of course, we never could have imagined—no-one could have predicted—what sort of requirements would be on that National Broadband Network when the COVID pandemic struck and an enormous burden on Internet provision, particularly in private homes, suddenly came into effect because, of course, through the pandemic, people needed to isolate. Sometimes they were under a work-from-home direction. Certainly we all remember the experiences that we all had in using our homes as a workplace—in some states for quite an extended period of time.

Thankfully, by the time we had this enormous burden in place, there had been an enormous change to the rollout of the National Broadband Network, commencing with the change of government in September 2013. At that time, the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government had connected the NBN to 51,000 homes in six years, at a cost of $6 billion. At that breakneck speed, by the time the COVID pandemic struck we might have had a little over 100,000 homes connected to the NBN if Labor had stayed in power. Of course, they didn't. The government changed, and we dramatically changed our approach to rolling out the NBN, which saw us look to roll it out as rapidly as possible and to connect as many homes as possible as quickly as we possibly could in the most efficient cost model. That has seen, from the most recent figures, that more than 12 million premises across the country have access to the NBN. Around 8½ million connections are in place. This was all achieved between September 2013 and the May election in 2022.

This is extremely significant because, when we had the enormous burden put onto the NBN through an unpredictable requirement of connections throughout the homes of Australia, thanks to the coalition's rollout of the NBN we had the service there ready for people. Under Labor, if they continued at the pace in which they were rolling out their expensive and slow version of the NBN, we might have seen barely 100,000 properties or more connected to the network if you extrapolate it out. Instead, we now have around 12 million properties that can connect.

This puts the NBN in a very strong position, obviously having that customer base, to now undertake further investments into that capability. It's certainly the vision of our side of politics that the NBN is a financially sustainable, growing business that is repaying the Commonwealth for the investment into that infrastructure that we have made. It's also our vision that, by virtue of having that extremely large customer base, the NBN is able to invest in further enhancement of internet services, particularly increasing speeds, to businesses, communities and households throughout the country, particularly making sure that we're investing in increasing the standard of services in regional and remote communities.

That is all happening. Minister Fletcher made significant announcements over the last two years to enhance investment in both regional and remote connection speeds but also, of course, the business fibre network system that allows businesses to access speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second. That is quite phenomenal and is transformative for certain businesses, particularly, I might say, in health care and the health system. That extremely high-speed availability of data and connectivity is transformative around health technology and the ability to provide healthcare services in new and innovative ways into the future.

This motion is an opportunity to note the very significant achievements under the NBN in both connecting a record number of Australian households, rolling out the scheme to more than 12 million sites across the nation; and being there when it was most important, particularly during the pandemic, to provide Australians with connectivity through the National Broadband Network. (Time expired)

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did have a little bit of a chuckle to myself when I saw this motion pop up. Those who've been in this place for a while would know that this isn't actually a new motion. This motion has been moved by former government members several times. They've just recycled a little bit of old homework, deleting 'government' and putting in 'opposition'. They're trying to rewrite history again with this motion.

When the former Rudd-Gillard government first decided that it would build the NBN network, the plan was for the majority of Australian households—in fact, over 93 per cent of Australian households—to get fibre to the premises. That was the plan. That was what was being rolled out. Unfortunately, that Labor government lost power in 2013 before the real significant build started. What we then had from the incoming coalition government was a debacle.

Back then, Malcolm Turnbull became Minister for Communications and tore up the plan which would have seen 93-plus per cent of households get fibre to the premises. They introduced their mixed plan, where they had fibre to the node, they used a cable, they had more houses on satellite and they had more houses on the fixed wireless network. They promised that it would be built and people would be on the NBN sooner, faster and cheaper, by 2016, but they failed. They failed to build it sooner, failed to make it cheaper and failed in it altogether.

In fact, under the former government we saw, as strange as this sounds, manufacturing facilities overseas having to ramp up their production capacity for copper wire because, rather than replacing old, degraded copper that was in the ground with fibre optics as the rest of the world were doing, the former government decided—because they were so wedded to their fibre-to-the-node plan—that, where there was degraded copper, they needed new copper. So much copper was required that overseas manufacturers had to reopen factories. That's how out of date the former government's policy was.

In my own electorate, a regional electorate, a whole bunch of towers were built when Julia Gillard was Prime Minister. That's how long ago these towers were built. But then the coalition was elected on 7 September 2013. These towers weren't turned on. They were put in the too-hard basket. Yet the government hadn't informed the other side of the business—the retailers—that the towers hadn't been turned on. So we started to get these complaints coming in. This is an example of how incompetent the previous government were. People were being sold a product that they could attach to the NBN through the fixed wireless network. Only when the technician came out did they discover that in their area the tower had not been switched on, and it took forever to get to the bottom of why these towers hadn't been switched on. So we had the frustration of people who were trying to buy internet access—buy their NBN package—but couldn't because the tower wasn't switched on. We found out that one of the towers had been rejected through planning. The solution of the government back then was to fix the nine towers in the area back to one relay tower, when it was supposed to be five towers to one relay tower. It meant that the people at the very end of the service got poor-quality internet. They had very slow speeds. This is the legacy of that government, and mine is just one electorate. Every electorate has a horror-story track record of the previous government and what they did to what was going to be a revolutionary change that would get every house the internet speeds that it needed.

What the new Labor government did for those fixed wireless networks on coming into government has increased the speeds. One of the first acts of the minister, Michelle Rowland, was to increase the speeds for regional communities who rely upon the fixed wireless network. It's been fantastic for people relying on that service, whether they be students who are studying from home or people working from home. They are now getting the download speeds that they were promised. But it took the election of a Labor government to fix. We are rolling out more fibre to the-premises. We can't roll it out everywhere, but we're rolling it out where we can because fibre is better than copper, something that took the previous government almost a decade to work out and this government to fix. As for this motion, I strongly suggest that the opposition go back and start again.

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Buchholz, congratulations on sitting in the chair. It is good to see you here today. I thank the member for Sturt for bringing this motion forward to talk about the NBN, the National Broadband Network, which has revolutionised Australia. Let's face it: it's changed the way we do business. In my electorate of Moncrieff there are 36,000 small businesses, so fast broadband is pretty important when it comes to doing business and how we catch up with our friends and our family, especially during COVID, when we all use the internet so much at home. Fast internet really played a vital role in the day-to-day during COVID. The way that we were able to work from home and respond to the pandemic, I think, really highlighted how important broadband is, including the NBN.

I've watched how it's impacted on everyday lives and is changing the way that we do things, making it easier, making it better for Australians and making it faster. I've seen firsthand how having fast internet has, as I said, impacted thousands of those small businesses in my electorate and around the country. Some businesses no longer require that bricks and mortar, which means they can run a small business from home, and we've seen that growing trend across Australia during COVID. That helps working mums to work from home and look after their kids and have a bit of flexibility in their working lives, thanks to broadband that is fast enough to work from home with. And it's helped to boost productivity across the nation, and to foster innovation, and has allowed small and medium businesses and enterprises to embrace opportunities for growth in a different way.

But the NBN wasn't always great. I'm sure many in this place remember what the NBN was like under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government—or what it wasn't like, given that after six years and $6 billion only 51,000 premises were connected to the NBN. Labor love to take credit for the NBN, and they love to pretend that the NBN is how it is today is because of them, those opposite. But in reality it was a complete and utter shambles under those opposite, and I'm sure many Australians have realised by now that when Labor make a mess it's usually a pretty big one, and the coalition have to come in to scoop it all up and fix it all up—and that's exactly what we did with the NBN.

I'm proud to say that our strong economic record and our investments in the NBN have made it what it is today. After nine years of the coalition, there are now more than 8.4 million premises connected to the NBN and more than 12 million premises ready to connect. That's quite an incredible number—double. It is a stark difference, and it's further proof that no matter what Labor say they cannot be trusted when it comes to the NBN. There are a few other things they can't be trusted with, but I won't go into those.

It's our government who delivered the NBN efficiently and economically when Australians needed it most. When did Australians need it most? Well, during this last couple of years of pandemic, when Australians needed to be in contact with loved ones all around the world. In fact, many Australians haven't seen their loved ones for a couple of years, so it was really important to have NBN fast internet at home while people were doing their isolation periods and during lockdowns. It was the glue that kept families together, when you break it down. It was high-speed internet that allowed families to communicate around the globe and interstate when they weren't able to connect face to face.

Under our government, the NBN stood the test of COVID-19 and will continue to be a driving force in our strong economic recovery. If we'd left those opposite in charge, the cost would have tripled and Australians would still be waiting for fast internet. What does that mean for the future? Well, it means a future under a Labor Albanese government, who couldn't figure out their own policies, so they just copied ours. That's what they do on the other side: when they can't find their own policies, they copy ours. But the data does speak for itself: 51,000 over six years versus 12 million ready to connect. They are stark figures, and it was under our government that the NBN was delivered to the country.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's no doubt that the NBN needed to be the first and most significant major infrastructure investment program of the 21st century. It was the big missing piece when it came to national infrastructure in Australia, and it is a shambles. It's been delivered in an awful, terrible, slow, expensive, substandard way. We essentially have a network that is obsolete on delivery. And I'm astounded to be standing here on the first Monday of a new parliamentary term, in the second week, to find that the motions being brought by the opposition include this one. I mean, you'd only do that if the general instructions were, 'Let's go and have debates on literally the small handful of the most terrible things we did over the last nine years,' because it is just ridiculous. We had the new member for Casey saying that he didn't think this parliament should be looking in the rear-view mirror. You can understand why the opposition would take that view; that's in keeping with their new policy of mass collective amnesia about what's passed over the previous nine years. People around the suburbs should keep watch over their wing mirrors, because rear-view mirrors, wing mirrors and everything else are at great risk under the approach of the opposition.

At the same time, we had the member for Sturt, who brought the motion, begin this debate by saying, 'Let's celebrate the 2013 election of the coalition government.' Here we are—it's a new parliament—and he kicked off this debate by saying, 'Let's celebrate.' I don't know how many rear-view mirrors are swinging in his office, but the member for Casey might want to go around and have a look. Some of them probably need to be collected.

What's the reality? The reality is that we're the 13th-largest economy in the world, but we've got broadband speeds that place us 60-something in the world. That's the reality, right? The reality is that those opposite decided to abandon a plan for a fibre-rich network, using a 21st-century technology, and double down on 19th-century telephone copper wire. We became one of the largest purchasers of copper wire on the planet, because their approach to the NBN was akin to someone starting an airline by going around and trying to superglue wings onto a train. That's more or less the approach that was taken by those opposite. The network that we have was obsolete on delivery. We have people in rural and regional Australia using satellite, sometimes fixed wireless, or literally driving from property to property to borrow the internet—just as you might go next door to borrow a cup of milk—because they need to do systems upgrades or need access to downloads for the sake of their children's education. We have people in a seat like mine, the division of Fremantle, using satellite on the urban fringe of capital cities.

We have a plan, if that's what it is, that was supposed to be $29 billion and delivered by 2016; it's not complete now and is at $58 billion plus—a plan that involved an equity investment by the government but where the rest of the financing was supposed to come from the private sector. No-one in the private sector wanted to lend money to the NBN. The government stepped in and did that, so we've got this massively slow and over-budget exercise that has given Australia in the year 2022—we're nearly a quarter into the 21st century—an absolute disaster of a broadband network. We know precisely what is required to enable families and households to participate in telehealth and tele-education—things that became even more important in the course of the pandemic—and we know the kind of speeds, networking and accessibility that businesses need to improve productivity and connect to the wider world, especially from an island continent. Yet we've got this disaster.

I find it astounding—astonishing—that, on the first Monday of a new parliamentary term, opposition members bowl up and want to talk about the NBN and what a great job they've done. It's over cost, slow and absolutely awful, and, of course, we are now going back to the sensible plan, which was a fibre-rich network for the 21st century. Yet someone before—I think it was the member for Moncrieff—was suggesting that it's the opposition, it's the coalition, that cleans up the mess that the Labor Party makes. We are literally standing in the smouldering ruin. How on earth anyone from that side can make reference to a mess that needs cleaning up and not have a ridiculous grin on their face is beyond me, but that's where we are. The NBN's a disaster, and we'll clean it up.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( ): I thank the member for Fremantle for the contribution, and I give the call to the honourable member for Groom.

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. How great it is to see you enthroned again, your dulcet tones presiding over us. I'll try to hold back a ridiculous grin, but may I say: long may we celebrate the 2013 election win.

This motion speaks to three things I would like to raise that are very important. This is the story of infrastructure and infrastructure delivery, and the two very different approaches that we see. Usually when we talk about infrastructure in seats like yours and mine, Mr Deputy Speaker, we're talking about the roads, the rail, the bridges—the things we expect to see—and we have a strong record of delivering that. The Second Range Crossing coming from your area into mine, Inland Rail as it progresses—these sorts of things that we see, the tangible infrastructure, do so much for us, and we come to rely upon our government to deliver this infrastructure regionally. In fact, the growth of our regions relies upon that regional investment from this side of the House. This is as true of hard infrastructure as it is of digital infrastructure.

This is such an important point for our future. Whilst the roads and the bridges are the things that allow us to do business and take our goods to market, digital infrastructure is important for us as we progress our ideas of regionalisation. Broadening our local economies requires new industries coming into our areas. Without that investment, we don't get the benefits of these new economies, these new technologies, coming into our areas. We absolutely saw that throughout the pandemic. In my area of Groom we had people flooding out of the cities, running away—I know this was the case across Australia, but it was so strong in Groom—and coming to live in Groom, to experience city life in a regional setting that they couldn't have elsewhere. It is certainly almost a unique proposition in Queensland.

What enabled that was not just a desire to experience that lifestyle. What enabled it was the ability to do business in our area. For example, C-suite professionals or people in management consultancies or high-tech businesses were able to come and—originally just via Zoom, temporarily—operate their businesses for a little while out of a regional base. But slowly they realised they could stay there long term, and they have. We've seen that investment come into our regions. We've seen that new industry and the broadening of our economy happen, and it's prevalent everywhere. The evidence of it is in our house prices and the vacancy rates in our rentals. This has happened. It happened because we had the digital infrastructure in place, because we had the NBN delivered. The approach that we took was a needs based approach, to get it done so that the work could take place.

It's very interesting. I pick up the notes of previous speakers admitting that, whilst their approach was for fibre everywhere, they couldn't roll fibre out everywhere, and, of course, you can't. We found that out. What we did was put in the program that was best placed to deliver the needs of the people, to make sure that it was their needs that were achieved, not our high and lofty positions. What we did was deliver for the people of Australia so that that growth could happen, particularly in the regions. I think that that's a difference in approach that was fundamental and was admitted almost straight up.

The second part is to suggest that it is a failed delivery. I would humbly submit that everyone who has enjoyed the benefits of a Zoom meeting out in the bush may have a different view, because it did work, it has been used and it has driven work in our regions. This is a different approach to infrastructure delivery, perhaps, to the opposite side's. It's one that gets it done. It puts the good above the perfect, and it deals with the needs of the Australian people.

I think the third point that this speaks to, really, is small business. The people who benefited most from this are the small businesses around Australia, again regionally. Toowoomba is an absolute hotbed for small businesses, as we slowly, piece by piece, build a new economy that enables families to have an additional source of income. It's fantastic, and it's been possible to do it because we invested in this infrastructure. I'm very happy to support this motion because—far be it from me to say this—it reminds Australia that this is why we do what we do. This is what's important: that we can deliver these assets to the Australian people.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers on the motion relating to the NBN, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.