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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill reaffirms the Australian government's commitment to ongoing public ownership of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and to remove existing conditions that create a pathway to privatisation of this vital national infrastructure.

Introduction

The National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024 (the bill) will amend the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 (NBN act) to recognise in legislation the government's policy that NBN Co Limited (NBN Co), the company that operates the National Broadband Network (NBN), remains in public ownership. The bill also makes minor consequential amendments to the NBN act and to the Telecommunications Act 1997.

Context of the Bill

In December 2022, the Minister for Finance and I, as joint shareholder ministers for NBN Co, issued an updated Statement of Expectations which confirms the government policy to keep NBN Co in public hands for the foreseeable future, providing the company with the certainty needed to continue delivering improvements to the network while keeping prices affordable.

This bill strengthens that commitment and makes it part of the legislative framework. This change will remove the existing legislative conditions which, if satisfied, enable privatisation of NBN Co.

The NBN is critical national infrastructure

The NBN was established by the Labor government because of the failure of the former coalition government to foresee and plan for the digital transformation of the economy. The sale of Telstra by the coalition sold out communities, particularly in rural and regional Australia, both in terms of critical infrastructure investment and service quality for consumers. Crucially, the Telstra sale also deprived the government of strategic levers to drive the investment necessary for Australians to fully access reliable high-speed broadband and the productivity and digital inclusion benefits that delivers.

That is why it remains vital that the ongoing mission and focus of the NBN to deliver affordable, accessible high-speed broadband to all Australians be guided by the public interest, rather than the commercial interests of a privileged few.

We will retain strong regulatory oversight of the pricing of NBN wholesale products by the ACCC, and the government will continue to act in the interests of regional communities to narrow the digital communications divide.

The NBN is Australia's digital backbone, carrying the majority of the download traffic for Australian households, and the NBN also carries a significant proportion of voice traffic for consumers. It is critical for this national infrastructure to be reliable, resilient and secure. In a time of rising risks of cybersecurity we will ensure that the NBN stays in the ownership of the Australian people.

The NBN reaches over 12.4 million premises across Australia. Currently, more than 8.6 million homes and businesses in Australia are connected to the NBN.

The government has been making ongoing investment in the NBN to bring the benefits of high-speed broadband to more Australians. This government support includes a commitment of $2.4 billion to replace the deteriorating copper network with fibre, which provides 90 per cent of Australians—around 10 million premises in the NBN fixed-line footprint—with access to faster and more reliable broadband.

This investment is already delivering benefits with increased reliability, fewer faults and access to higher speeds.

In addition, the government and NBN Co are delivering a $750 million investment to upgrade services in the NBN fixed-wireless network, which has flow-on benefits to NBN satellite services. This investment has already delivered uplifted speeds on existing plans and has introduced new fixed-wireless high-speed tiers, with wholesale peak download speeds that range from 200 megabits per second up to 400 megabits per second.

The upgrade has also enabled unlimited data to be introduced for NBN satellite plans with download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

The NBN is vital nation-building infrastructure, essential to the wellbeing, safety and prosperity of Australians. An NBN that provides fast, reliable and affordable connectivity is critical to Australian households and businesses having access to key services to drive productivity growth and support digital inclusion and equitable access.

Keeping NBN Co in public hands is better for Australia

Keeping NBN Co in public hands will ensure the company has the certainty necessary for its investment planning and operational decisions, which are needed to maximise the economic and social benefits of the NBN. This is in contrast to a privately owned NBN Co, which would be focussed on maximising the profits of its owners and would not have strong incentives to make the investments needed to keep prices affordable and connect Australians in regional and remote Australia, including First Nations communities.

There will be no conditions or stepping stones to privatisation

The NBN act currently sets out conditions that, once satisfied, would enable a future government to initiate privatisation of the company. Once these conditions are met and a sale scheme completed, there would no longer be whole public ownership of NBN Co.

Since the government has no intention to sell the NBN, there is no requirement for a legislative sale scheme. Other government business enterprises, for example Australia Post, do not have provisions for sale in their enabling legislation.

This bill removes that pathway to privatisation and commits to keeping the NBN wholly owned by the Australian people. A new section 43A will be introduced in the NBN act to make clear parliament's intention that NBN Co would remain wholly owned by the Commonwealth.

The b ill would not change the operation of the NBN

It is proposed that the bill will commence on the day after the royal assent.

Importantly, the amendments proposed by the bill are largely mechanical in nature and do not change the operations of the NBN. These are proportionate and balanced amendments consistent with the government's policy to keep the NBN in public hands.

The proposed new statement of parliamentary intent would, in recognition of the national significance and nationwide accessibility of the NBN, further reaffirm the importance of NBN Co remaining in public hands, and safeguard Australia's long term economic and security interests.

Conclusion

Through this bill, the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 will be amended to remove conditions enabling a future government to privatise NBN Co. These changes reinforce in legislation the government's commitment.

The bill provides certainty to stakeholders, including broadband consumers, the wider telecommunications industry, broadband retailers, and NBN Co, that the Commonwealth will continue to retain ownership of NBN Co. This certainty supports the government commitment for NBN Co to provide high-speed and reliable broadband connectivity for Australians.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a sad little stunt this is. This has a real last-days-of-empire feeling to it. The government is getting desperate. It's getting hammered from basically all directions. So they think, 'Let's try to come up with some distractions so that people look over there.' Don't look at what this government is doing on a daily basis and the catastrophic failures that it is putting onto the Australian people. Don't look at that; look at various distractions! The government just moved a suspension of standing orders to say how urgent it is that we debate this matter right now. It's odd, then, that in the entire 2½ years since the election the Prime Minister has only mentioned the NBN in this parliament six times, which suggests that it wasn't an overly urgent issue in his mind until then.

It's also interesting, isn't it, when we think about other policy areas in the communications portfolio. You might have heard, Deputy Speaker, that there's been something of a debate about the regulation of gambling advertising in Australia. Many people listening or watching today would be aware that, for a very long time, this government has failed to act on the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry into gambling advertising. In fact, that inquiry reported—what is it now?—some 16 or 17 months ago. And what have we heard from the government in response to this issue? It's been nothing at all. The only thing we hear from the government is that a response on gambling advertising is imminent. We will have to consult the Oxford dictionary. Perhaps the definition of the word 'imminent' has to change! If something is imminent but takes 16 or 17 months, then the dictionary must be kind of wrong! It is comical. So many people want clarity from the government on this issue of gambling advertising. Back in May 2023, the Leader of the Opposition stood at this dispatch box. You know what he did? He said something with commitment. He said that the coalition would ban gambling advertising from one hour before a live sporting event to one hour after. Why did he do that? He believes it's the right thing to do. He believes that gambling advertising is being integrated with sporting content in a way which is very bad for our nation. This is a very important point. In this portfolio, there is an atmosphere of indecision and malaise. We see it most comically in gambling advertising but we see it in other areas as well, of course. We see it in relation to the News Media Bargaining Code.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shadow Minister, I'm just going to remind you of bringing your thoughts back to the bill before the House.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Certainly. I think it's a very important point, Deputy Speaker.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, you're four minutes in, so I'm keen to hear about the bill before you, the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Very happy to do that, Deputy Speaker. So this proposal, as I say, is the sort of thing you put forward when you're completely out of ideas. The government's proposal is to change the 2010 law related to the ownership of the NBN. Of course, that's law that came into place when Labor were in power, so this is Labor law that they are seeking to change. The Prime Minister back then, of course, was a cabinet minister—he was the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport—and Leader of the House, and it's his law that he's now seeking to change. He's now saying that he seeks urgently to change it, despite not acting on so many other areas of policy.

We haven't been briefed on this law as yet, Deputy Speaker. That's going to happen, I believe, later today, so we'll respond in the usual way once we've reviewed the legislation. But what this is about is an attempt to distract from the catastrophic failures of this government relating to many things, including the NBN. When we look at the NBN we see we have the quite extraordinary situation whereby the government has cheered on price rises for the NBN that have absolutely smashed Australian consumers. We saw the extraordinary situation earlier this year whereby six million families were hit by this government with massive NBN price rises. They were hit first in November 2023 and again in July 2024. The government may welcome those price rises. In fact, they do welcome the price rises, because the Minister for Communications infamously described the decision that led to those price rises as 'great news for consumers'. It's in the press release, so it's very hard to unwind now. The minister described as 'great news for consumers' price rises of 14 per cent for people who use NBN products. Do you know what else, Deputy Speaker? The people who have suffered the greatest price rises under this government are the people who are on the lowest cost, most affordable plans, the people who can afford those price rises the least.

What we saw back in November 2023 was an initial price increase. Then we saw, in July of 2024, another price increase. So, in total, there have been price increases of 11 to 14 per cent in just eight months under this government. The bottom line is: how are people supposed to pay for them? How are they supposed to find the money for those additional NBN price rises? But that's what they have to do, because under this government that is what has happened. This government should apologise for those price rises and for enthusiastically welcoming those price rises and describing them as great news for customers.

That is just one of many things that are going so terribly wrong when it comes to the NBN. Under this government, we have seen a collapse in the satellite business of the NBN. People are literally running away from the NBN product because it is so bad. That is what is happening, Deputy Speaker. When this government came into power there were about 120,000 people who subscribed to the NBN satellite product. Now the number is down below 85,000 people. The NBN has seen a massive loss of customers. At the same time, Starlink, the competitive satellite product, which had virtually no customers two years ago, now has 270,000 customers. What is the government's response? It's to convene a roundtable of academics to discuss the issue, because this is a government and this is a minister that never met a roundtable they didn't like. The atmosphere of indecision, malaise and failure to take action to stand up for Australian consumers is on very proud display when it comes to the NBN.

We're also seeing a further deterioration in the financial position of NBN. In the last 12 months, NBN's cash outflow was negative $1.4 billion, $300 million worse than the negative $1.1 billion result in the previous financial year under this government. So things are getting worse and worse. The prices are going up. Satellite customers are leaving.

Do you know who else is leaving the NBN, Deputy Speaker Claydon? It's people who live in existing homes—what they call brownfields customers. People who live in normal homes are leaving the NBN. One of the big reasons they're leaving the NBN is that prices have gone up by so much under this government, and this is happening in the middle of the Albanese government's cost-of-living crisis. So it's not only the NBN prices that are going up; everything's going up.

Since the election, people have seen the cost of health go up by more than 10 per cent, the cost of education by more than 11 per cent, the cost of food by more than 12 per cent and the cost of electricity by 14 per cent. Housing's gone up by 13 per cent. Rents have gone up by 16 per cent. Financial products and insurance have gone up by 17 per cent. Gas has gone up by 33 per cent. Fruit and vegetable prices have seen their highest rise since December 2022.

So what the government should be doing is urgently bringing forward measures to address the cost-of-living crisis that Australians are dealing with at the moment. But do they do that? No, they don't. They don't do that. They don't bring forward something to address that issue. They bring forward something to address an issue related to the ownership of NBN, despite basically never having spoken about the issue in parliament in the entire two years that the government has been in position. It is an extraordinary failure.

If you look at the communications portfolio, it is notable that the government seeks to bring on a debate about this issue, but what about the media bargaining code? What about the fact that Australian media companies have been absolutely smashed by Meta's withdrawal from paying for the intellectual property of Australian media? On 1 March, 7½ months ago, the Minister for Communications said that she and her colleague the Assistant Treasurer had made their expectations clear to the media companies—that this was just unacceptable and that the government would be taking firm action. That was 7½ months ago. What's happened since? Nothing, except—I'll tell you what has happened—large-scale job losses in the media industry. We've seen very substantial job losses. The minister might not think that's important, but I do. I do think it's important. We've seen very substantial job losses at Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, Associated Press and News Corp, and those groups have all made it very clear that a key part of the reason for those job losses is Meta's refusal to pay under the news media bargaining code administered by this minister.

So does the minister bring a proposal to this government to actually solve the problem? No. The government doesn't do anything on that issue, which is so fundamental to the Australian media sector. Despite the clear powers that exist in the news media bargaining code, the government does absolutely nothing about that but seeks to artificially bring on a debate about the ownership of NBN, despite never talking about the issue in two years. It's kind of sad, transparent and pathetic as a political tactic.

That's why Australians have worked this government out, and they've worked this Prime Minister out. They've worked out that he doesn't stand for anything, that he's weak, that he's indecisive and that he's presiding over a cost-of-living crisis that is smashing the average Australian family, as well as record insolvencies. So, the human cost of this government's inaction is very disturbing. That's what the government should be trying to address. But the government is instead putting on a confected display to seek to have a debate about the ownership of the NBN, despite the fact that, back in 2021, the government said that the NBN would be kept in public hands.

This is not an issue that is new, not an issue that is urgent but an issue that is designed simply to bring forward a political debate. But that's not going to prevail, because people are smarter than that. People have seen through this government. They know that this government is desperate. They know that this government is weak, that it's indecisive, that it's presiding over some of the worst cost-of-living conditions Australians have ever seen. And rather than respond to that, rather than bring forward something to deal with these measures, the government does this.

You have to ask the Minister for Communications: why doesn't the minister bring forward anything about gambling advertising?

Government members interjecting—

It's a very serious question. Why doesn't the Minister for Communications address this issue? I mean, she can't say she's not aware it's an issue of public concern. She can't say it's not an issue that worries Australians. And she can't say it's an issue that she's not had plenty of time to address. But she can't bring forward anything on that. She brings forward a piece of legislation that is not urgent in order to simply have a confected political debate.

We'll review that legislation once we've been briefed on it, but what we will never, ever do is behave in the fashion of this government in presiding over a shocking cost-of-living crisis, of being weak and indecisive, of failing the Australian people and of putting politics before the substance of assisting Australians. That's something we will never do. This government should and must be held to account for its shocking failures.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shadow minister for communications, in just a 17-minute speech, failed to talk about the National Broadband Network. And it's not surprising, because their record is so shocking when it comes to that. But he also had the temerity to suggest that the government should be doing cost-of-living measures. Cost-of-living measures that have been brought forward by this government have all been opposed by the opposition of which he is a part.

We brought forward measures to give tax cuts to all Australians. They said there should be an election over it. We brought forward energy price relief. They opposed it. We put caps on gas and coal prices. They rejected it and said that that was 'command economy' and taking over from where the market should be left alone. We brought forward cheaper medicines. They said it would ruin the pharmacy industry.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hey stupid! You brought it up!

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Casey on a point of order?

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen made an unparliamentary remark. I'd ask him to withdraw.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did not hear anything, I'm sorry. I heard the interjections from you earlier on, but I didn't hear that. Is there any reason for the member for McEwen to withdraw?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely not.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We brought forward cheaper childcare measures, opposed by those opposite. This legislation is also about the cost of living, because it's about making sure that the National Broadband Network can stay in public hands. It will not be a for-profit provider, which would have, by definition, an obligation to its shareholders—not the Australian people but its shareholders, people who buy shares on the stock market—and therefore would be obligated to maximise profits. This would mean that people in regional and in less densely populated areas of Australia, in particular, would suffer—just as we had to deal with the consequences of the privatisation of Telstra. One of the reasons why we put the National Broadband Network in public hands is that we didn't have a communications provider in the public sector to be able to roll out high-speed broadband for Australians, regardless of where they live.

The National Broadband Network is a vital national asset. It delivers an essential public service. It was built by Australians for Australians. It belongs to every Australian citizen, and it belongs in public hands. That's what this legislation is about. It's about safeguarding the future of the NBN, making sure it cannot be privatised and can't be hollowed out or sold off to overseas interests. This legislation is making sure that every Australian—whether they live in the city, in the regions or in the outer suburbs—can count on the affordable, reliable and fast internet that they need and deserve, publicly owned and affordable for all.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam once said that his definition of equality was every child in Australia having a quiet room in which to study and a desk with a lamp to read by. That was in the 1970s. In 2024, every Australian child needs to be sitting at their desk with access to the NBN. That's true for school, for TAFE and for university—and every household needs it too. The NBN makes telehealth possible. It makes working from home possible as well. I remember being in the electorate of the member for Richmond, where telehealth services were being delivered, making an enormous difference—something that was written off by the coalition, who argued that it was all about watching videos. It's about delivery of services—health and education services—to wherever people live. It connects us with loved ones, interstate and overseas. It brings together communities of faith. It enables Australians to launch a startup or take their small business idea to a national market. It's what farmers, growers and producers use to monitor weather, soil, feed and water. It helps secure our supply chains, transport, freight and logistics. It supports our national security infrastructure, our banking system and our energy grid.

In every facet of our dynamic, outward-looking economy, in every element of our modern society, the NBN is fundamental to the way that we work, learn, trade and communicate. It's critical to our economic growth as well. A faster, better NBN will contribute $400 billion to GDP by 2030, and that's why our government has invested $2.4 billion to bring full-fibre NBN to an additional 1.5 million homes, including 660,000 in rural and regional centres. We're bringing free wi-fi to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the continent. We're helping 30,000 families with children in school with a free internet connection. I visited one of those schools in the minister's electorate, and it's making such an enormous difference to those children in Western Sydney, who would be without were it not for the commitment that the government has made. From next year, broadband speed will be up to five times faster at no extra cost, and today we are acting to safeguard the NBN for the future.

Since 2011, if a government wanted to sell the NBN, there were four steps they would have to take. In 2020 the Liberals took the first step: they declared the NBN was complete. 'Job done,' they said. Never mind the millions of households that were stuck without fibre or decent service, they wanted to get step 1 done. Then in 2022 they tried to jack up wholesale prices for high-speed broadband so every Australian would have to pay more. It's all about fattening the pig for market day and very similar to what occurred with Telstra under the former government. The ACCC rejected that attempt, but we know that this risk remains because there has never been a public service or a public asset that the coalition didn't want to flog off. It's in their DNA.

When the Leader of the Opposition is looking around for the billions that he needs in the lead-up to PEFO and beyond of how he will fund these nuclear reactors, the most expensive form of energy, he will look at the $315 billion of expenditure that they say is waste. But cuts to the pension, cuts to Medicare, cuts to wages and the sacking of public servants won't be enough to cover all the costs, and he will look towards selling the NBN. He will look at selling a service that virtually every Australian uses to build nuclear reactors that will provide less than four per cent of our energy. And the Liberal Party won't care that there are no Australian buyers. They'd be happy to sell off this national asset and sell out the national interest in a heartbeat. For those opposite it's always the same: let the market rip, and, if people are disadvantaged and miss out, so be it. Remember that their model was that those who could afford the best speeds could get the best speeds because everyone else just wanted to watch videos faster.

With this, we will make sure that people, particularly in regional and rural Australia, are looked after because the advances that are made in health, agriculture, small business, education and emergency communications are too important to be put at risk. Our government is fixing mobile blackspots in the bush that were left by those opposite. A privatised NBN would create internet black holes. In 2008 I was proud to introduce the legislation into this House that created the National Broadband Network. I was proud, as the then infrastructure minister, to do important work along with the then minister for communications Stephen Conroy. We couldn't know that a once-in-a-century pandemic would make remote work and remote learning a necessity for millions overnight, which it did. We didn't know at that time that machine learning, cloud computing and AI would drive exponential demand for faster internet speeds. But we did know that high-speed broadband would be critical for a stronger economy and that affordable broadband would be crucial for a fairer society.

Remember this: those opposite opposed at every level the creation of the National Broadband Network. They regarded it as waste and unnecessary. They regarded it as some obscure technology thing out there that was about watching videos. Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister, is these days known as 50 per cent of the Leader of the Opposition's brains trust, along with his former chief of staff. This is what he had to say in 2013:

… do we really want to invest $50 billion of hard-earned taxpayers' money in what is essentially a video entertainment system?

That was the approach of those opposite. They pledged to rip up Labor's fibre broadband network, which they did. They said the maximum internet speed a household would ever need would be 25 megabits per second. Next year, households across Australia will have access to broadband with speeds up to 80 times faster than that. That's how quickly technology overtakes you when you're stuck in the past and afraid of the future. That's how foolish and frightened the Liberals always look when they try and drag the rest of Australia back to the past, just to keep them company.

The Liberals wasted a decade turning their back on a first-rate fibre network that was already being rolled out. Instead, they bought 60,000 kilometres of copper—enough to wrap around the entire planet 1½ times—to build a slow, third-rate network that was out of date before it was operational. They said it'd cost $29.5 billion, then $41 billion, then $49 billion, then $51 billion and then $58 billion. They derailed progress to impose the wrong technology, which was out of date and redundant before it was built, and signed the country up for something that took longer to build, delivered a less reliable and more expensive service and inflicted massive cost blowouts in construction. If this sounds familiar, imagine trusting this mob to build nuclear reactors. They couldn't build car parks next to train stations for commuters, but they would have you believe that the mob that thought copper was better than fibre in this century could be trusted to build nuclear reactors.

Our government is committed to an NBN that provides fast broadband that every Australian can afford. That means an NBN that every Australian owns. This legislation is our promise and our guarantee to all Australians. Under Labor, the NBN will be affordable, reliable, fast and safe in public hands. I commend the bill to the House.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We finally had the question answered as to why we had to rush this bill forward and why it's been placed in the House two hours before the shadow minister's briefing. We need to go through the timeline of the last 24 hours to understand why the PM just stood on his feet to give that speech. We saw yesterday, in question time, a disgraceful, personal attack against the shadow Treasurer. It was an insult to many and to everyone in the disability community. Many in the disability community are outraged, rightly, about the attack that the PM made yesterday on the shadow Treasurer. We didn't hear anything from the Prime Minister until—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You've had an introduction.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm about to link it to this bill.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not about linking; you need to talk about the bill.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm about to talk about the bill and why the bill has been brought forward and rushed in today, which is so the PM could stand there and talk about it right now. But, yesterday, when he came in at 7.59 pm, he didn't have support behind him. He was very happy to scurry in, but we had to rush the bill forward to create a distraction for the PM. We know from the words of the Minister for Communications herself that it is there to create a distraction. This is a complete stunt and a complete distraction. In her speech, she said the bill does 'not change the operations of the NBN'. It's not going to make any changes to those members of my community that can't access the NBN. It's not going to make any changes to the NBN for the victims of the June 2021 storms, who went months and months without their NBN, because the operation wasn't up to speed.

That's why the timing is relevant. There is nothing in this bill to improve the performance of the NBN. There is nothing in this bill to help the community of Casey in the Dandenong Ranges, in the Upper Yarra or in the Yarra Valley, which is struggling with its NBN. It's silence from the government on that, but they will rush this bill through so the Prime Minister can stand at the dispatch box and talk about his legacy and the NBN to distract from his disgraceful actions yesterday. That is why he was standing at that dispatch box. That is why this bill is being rushed through. It's pure politics and pure spin, because, in the minister's own words, this is not going to change the operation of the NBN.

In my community we know that the NBN is not delivering as it needs to. Just recently, at the Kalorama Chestnut Festival in the Dandenong Ranges, the NBN dropped out completely. No trader was able to use tap and go to collect money. Even worse than that was the danger created by phone communication not being accessible. The Dandenong Ranges is a dangerous area. It's a dangerous area for bushfires. It's a dangerous area, as we know, for storms. We've had three storm events in the last 18 months directly impacting the communications of our residents, including the NBN. It is an insult to my community that the government is rushing this bill through, even though, in the minister's own words, it will not change the operation of the NBN. It's all to give the PM a platform to distract from his actions yesterday. It's amazing that he can get everyone in the chamber today for his speech but he couldn't get anyone in the chamber last night when he came to apologise to those with disabilities and their families. It says a lot—who comes in when there's a stump speech to give and who turns up when there's an apology to give.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Casey, you were warned about the relevance matter by the Speaker just minutes ago. I bring you back to the subject of the bill.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll come straight back to the NBN. Let's look at the NBN and the Prime Minister talking about how great the NBN is. Well, it's not great for my community. Prices have gone up by 14 per cent since October last year, and the Prime Minister doesn't want to impact on the operations of the NBN.

Let's have a look at the performance of the NBN satellite. What are the consumers telling us about the NBN satellite? About 85,000 people have taken up the NBN through satellite. What are the other options? What are they saying? How do consumers react? Starlink is another satellite option. How many people in Australia have taken up Starlink? Around 270,000 Australians have chosen to take up Starlink. People are speaking with their money and with their feet. If you're the minister, or the Prime Minister, and you look at those results, it pretty much tells you there's an issue there. But they're not looking to make operational changes; they're just looking to have a stump speech and a bit of political spin.

Then we get the Prime Minister passionately defending the NBN and its public ownership, saying that it needs to stay public. I don't think he quite understood what he was doing, because in the same speech he then spoke about nuclear energy. The Prime Minister has stood at that dispatch box in question time, time after time, criticising the opposition because we want to invest in the energy system—another essential service. The Prime Minister talked about how important the NBN is as an essential service, and I agree with him on that. He says the NBN needs to be publicly owned, as an essential service, but we can't have publicly owned energy—we can't have an energy system that is reliable. Why not? The complete lack of logic in the Prime Minister's own words should concern every Australian. Supposedly it is vital that we have public ownership of the NBN because it's an essential service—I agree with that—but it's not vital that we have a strong, reliable electricity network underpinned by the only technology that is zero emission, provides reliable baseload power and is backed by many people, including the former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel. What that shows is that this is all about ideology. It's not actually about a fundamental belief in anything.

This is the challenge with this Prime Minister and this government. They don't stand for anything. They don't believe in anything. They're prepared to spin their performance. They're prepared to say what they need to say, trying to ride both sides of the fence. We saw it just then. We've seen a PM under pressure who is looking to distract. We've got a minister who is rushing through a bill that has no change to the operation of the NBN.

Yet, for months and months, we have been waiting for a response on gambling reform, which sits in the minister's portfolio. Last year, the opposition leader, in his budget in-reply speech, committed to banning gambling ads during sporting events and an hour before and after. That legislation could have been through this House already and people could have been able to watch sport with their families without having to see gambling ads if the minister and the Prime Minister had wanted to act. At that time, they said that they couldn't act because they needed to finish the Murphy report and they wanted to see that. We are now months and months and months from a response on that.

So it's this juxtaposition that we have, of a minister and a government that are suddenly prepared to rush through legislation that is symbolic—legislation that makes no changes at all, doesn't improve the operations of the NBN, doesn't bring prices down for the community and doesn't improve reliability for my community and for regional communities. It does none of that. But we've got to rush it through because it's symbolic.

In many ways, this bill sums up everything that is wrong with this government. It sums up the political spin of a government that is making it worse for the Australian people. They're not making a tangible difference. Two and a half years in, there's not one Australian who's feeling better today than they were 2½ years ago.

The Prime Minister promised he had solutions to the cost of living challenges that the Australian people faced; he promised that in May 2022. He hasn't delivered on that, because there's not an Australian that's feeling better. The Prime Minister promised energy bills would be reduced by $275, and they've gone up significantly in those 2½ years.

The reason that this bill is symbolic of that is: the reality is that you can't spin your way out of the challenges the Australian people face. You can't bring in a bill that makes no difference and think that the lives of the Australian people are going to be improved. I can understand—I've got a little bit of empathy for the Prime Minister, in the sense that he's been in this House since 1996. He's spent his whole life here. This is what he knows; this is what he understands. The Treasurer brags about being involved in delivering 18 budgets, either as a Treasurer, a staffer or an MP. So I'm sure they genuinely think that a bill like this makes a difference; I'm sure they do. But it doesn't.

Unless you are delivering on the root causes of what the Australian people face, you are not going to solve the challenges that we face. We've seen it with energy. We've seen it with interest rates. We've seen it with housing. We're now seeing it with the NBN.

This bill will make no difference for the Australian people. It will not improve performance at all. Yet the Prime Minister of this country deemed it so important to speak on a bill that makes no tangible difference to the Australian people that he came down from his office and sat here and he mandated that every member of his team turn up and sit in the back so he gets a good camera shot. They needed the great optics of the Prime Minister standing at the dispatch box with everyone behind him instead of talking to constituents and doing the work they were doing. They were here to nod heads for the Prime Minister on a bill that, in the minister's own words, will not change the operations of the NBN. It will not improve the services for the residents of Casey. It will not improve services for the Dandenongs. It will not help those businesses that lost so much money in Kalorama. This is the frustration that we feel. It's all the spin. We can get everyone together for the spin. Two and a half weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with what we refer to as the captains on the hill. Up at Kalorama, there was the Kalorama Mount Dandenong CFA and the Sassafras-Ferny Creek CFA. Olinda CFA were represented as well. We spoke to the Kallista CFA about the communications challenges that they face. They haven't been resolved 2½ years later. They need to be resolved.

Let's understand, when we talk about this, how important this is. In the June storms of 2021, for Sarah, who is involved at the Sassafras-Ferny Creek CFA, the only way to communicate with other CFA volunteers putting their lives on the line was through text message. But she had to leave her phone on her desk at the station and try to text. Sometimes it would work, and sometimes it wouldn't. It's the middle of the night, and we are asking residents of our community to volunteer their time to keep us safe. They do that willingly, but we need to give them the communications that they need and deserve for our emergency services. That is what they need.

Two and a half years into the Albanese Labor government, we don't get a solution to those challenges, but we get a bill that makes no difference and does not improve the communications for the CFAs or residents in my community. We get a bill that is a stunt. It is a bill to allow the Prime Minister to distract from his character failings yesterday. That's what it's about. Ultimately, this bill is so symbolic of the Albanese Labor government. It's all about spin and optics; it's not about delivering for the Australian people. You can spin for a little while, but, after 2½ years, the Australian people know they've been abandoned.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm the fifth person to speak on the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill. However, I am only the third to talk about the NBN! The member for Casey and the member for Banks are incredible. That's half an hour of my life that I will never get back because I had to listen to them—and they can't even spell NBN! Unbelievable! It reminded me—I'm actually old enough to remember; the member for Casey probably isn't—that we used to have this thing where we would dial up to get the internet. Your speeches were like that sound—I could just hear it in my head—when you didn't get through. You tried to get a connection, but it just didn't work. Your horse-and-buggy copper is really last century. Unfortunately, the NBN needed to be of this century.

I was here in the 43rd parliament. I've been around for a while. In fact, I ran for the election 20 years ago today. I got a second prize. I see Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, Justine Elliot and Steve Georganas. I wish them all well for their 20-year anniversaries. I remember what it was like in the 43rd parliament and how a farmer called Tony Windsor, a great man who served this country, understood the benefits of the NBN for farmers. He actually said, 'This will be a benefit for the modern-day farmer, for the modern-day miner and for education,' as the Prime Minister touched on. Every modern-day student will benefit from having a fibre network where they're sitting doing their homework or where they're at university—even if they're sitting and doing university work beside the Brisbane River or wherever it is. That's what the NBN enables.

I just wanted to point out to the member for Casey and the member for Banks that this NBN is a National Broadband Network. Why is it national? That's because we saw that we couldn't let the market do it. Prime Minister Rudd, a Queenslander, and Treasurer Swan—I think we particularly understood because we come from a decentralised state, where half of the people of Queensland live outside the south-east corner. Those Queenslanders understood the benefits of that fibre network. I know you all want to hear my speech, and I will have a lot more to say about it later today.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with the resolution agreed to by the House on 11 September 2024 and varied on 9 October 2024. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.