Jodie Belyea (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. How is the Albanese Labor government's expansion of the national broadband network delivering productivity and cost-of-living benefits for Australians after a wasted decade under those opposite?

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Labor founded the national broadband network to provide fast, reliable and affordable broadband to all Australians, and we are delivering on our vision of a world-class fibre network. The Albanese government are investing $2.4 billion over four years to give more households and businesses full-fibre access, and we are making swift progress.

Upgrades are underway across the country, with NBN announcing this week that two million premises in New South Wales and Victoria can now order a full-fibre upgrade. I'm pleased to inform the member that there are some 43,000 premises in her electorate of Dunkley that can get a high-speed fibre connection. The premises eligible for upgrades include 660,000 homes and businesses in the regions that are currently on slower, less reliable copper wire.

Full-fibre upgrades boost the reliability of services and the productivity of our homes and businesses, helping give back precious time in the day as well as cost savings. The upgrades support the fast, evolving ways in which Australians work, study and interact. For instance, the average home now hosts some 21 internet connected or smart devices, and data usage in Australia has increased 10 times over the past 10 years. That's why fibre is so important; it can deliver speeds 18 times faster than the average copper connection can, has less latency and is less likely to drop out. The productivity and efficiency gains are so significant. Research commissioned by NBN Co shows that Australians can save more than 100 hours and $2,580 per year in avoided travel time and costs when working from home and undertaking tasks online.

But this was lost on those opposite. During their wasted decade, their oversight of the NBN was a masterclass in economic and technical incompetence. Who could forget Tony Abbott's famous forecast that 'we are absolutely confident that 25 megs is going to be enough, more than enough, for the average household'. It is only a Labor government that can be relied on to invest in the long-term infrastructure that Australia needs to help with the cost of living, improve our national productivity and support our businesses to be globally competitive. It's great to see that NBN Co is now consulting with industry on a plan to turbocharge speeds and give customers upgrades to faster speeds at no extra wholesale cost, meaning that people will get more for what they pay on their telco bills. Only Labor can be relied on to provide meaningful help with the cost of living.