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

'Public ownership': two simple words but they mean so much, particularly for those of us on this side of the chamber. The NBN is one of Labor's greatest achievements, so it's only right that Labor introduces this bill to ensure it remains in public ownership. Indeed, on one level, it is lamentable that this bill even needs to be introduced in the first place. Given the importance of the NBN to all Australians, keeping it in public ownership really should be non-controversial, but we know only too well the form those opposite have on matters such as these. They have a long and sorry history of being the enemy of public ownership. Given half a chance, they would sell the NBN off in a jiffy to a foreign interest or the highest bidder, placing the interest of everyday Australians a poor second to corporate greed. Worse still, such a move could potentially compromise our national sovereignty and security, so it's timely this matter comes before us to ensure the public ownership of the NBN into the future.

The importance of the availability to all Australians of the NBN was evident during COVID. Families in Werriwa were struggling with accessibility and availability when everyone was suddenly working and being educated at home. Public ownership will ensure that the government can make the NBN available to all Australians. The Albanese government is 100 per cent committed to keeping the NBN in public ownership. This government is ensuring that modern, accessible and affordable communication services are available for all Australians without the ongoing threat of privatisation. Further, public ownership will ensure ongoing regulatory oversight of the NBN wholesale pricing, keeping broadband affordable for all Australians. When cost-of-living pressures are front and centre, the last thing Australians need to face is monopoly powers forcing up the price of broadband services.

The bill will amend the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 to ensure as an explicit requirement that the NBN will be preserved in public ownership. It will do this by removing the current conditions for terminating government ownership of the NBN by repealing most of part 3 of the NBN act. Labor's commitment to this end should come as no surprise given our commitment through the statement of expectations issued in 2022.

The NBN is without doubt one of Australia's most important pieces of infrastructure, especially in an age with cybersecurity and national security imperatives. Australians are taking up fibre upgrades in record numbers, and the fibre and fixed wireless upgrades we took to the 2022 election are being delivered on time and on budget—a first. Coupled with exciting innovations in satellite technology, we really are at the cusp of transforming connectivity for everyone. This is great news for all Australians, particularly those in regional communities. It's therefore crucial to ensure that the NBN has strong government oversight, and that's best achieved through the ongoing government ownership.

This bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before the House in recent times. It is important for all the right reasons. It is important because it demonstrates this government's commitment to the public ownership of one of our nation's most important pieces of infrastructure. It is important because it will ensure all Australians, especially those in regional Australia, will have first-class connectivity at an affordable price. It is important as it will protect Australia's national interest from foreign ownership and monopolies. It is important because it puts the interest of Australians unashamedly first. I commend the bill to the House and thank the minister for bringing the matter forward.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was so excited when I saw the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024 being presented to the House of Representatives. I was so excited because so many constituents in my electorate have challenges with the National Broadband Network, and I thought that having a bill dealing with the National Broadband Network would be a great opportunity to address some of those challenges that people have—the Australians who have been left behind who have an inability to connect to the NBN. I thought that was what this bill would be all about. That is certainly the urgent issue with relation to the NBN in my community.

But then I read the bill. I looked at it closely, and I saw that actually it didn't do any of those things. This bill, rather than addressing those things, is a political stunt. It's a symptom of a government that has run out of ideas and run out of puff. There's no agenda in this bill to reform the NBN and no agenda here to help Australians who have been left behind. This bill is a bill to save the Labor Party from the Labor Party. It's a bill to stop the privatisation of the NBN, the sale of which was contemplated by the Labor Party at the time they were in government in the Gillard years. It was Minister Conroy who said in his press release of 22 November 2010, 'The Gillard government remains firmly committed to selling its stake in the NBN Co after the network was fully built and operational, subject to market conditions and security considerations.'

The now Prime Minister was the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport at the time the bill was presented, and it's interesting reading his speech on the National Broadband Network Companies Bill 2010, where he said that the bill:

… also sets out arrangements for the eventual sale of the Commonwealth's stake in the company once the NBN rollout is complete, including provisions for independent and parliamentary reviews prior to any privatisation, and for the parliament to have the final say on the sale. The bill also creates a power for the Governor-General to make regulations concerning future private ownership and control of NBN Co. Ltd, and establishes other relevant reporting, governance and enforcement mechanisms.

Minister Albanese, as he then was, goes on to say:

There is no longer a requirement that NBN Co. Ltd must be sold within five years of it being declared built and fully operational. Rather the time frame for any sale is left to the judgment of the government and parliament of the day, enabling due regard to the role the NBN is playing, market conditions and any other relevant factors.

The idea of selling the NBN was very much a Labor idea at the time that the NBN bills were first enacted. So the idea that this is being put forward is quite strange to me. You have to remember the genesis of the NBN was very much a slapdash effort on behalf of the then government. Minister Conroy, as he then was, had to fly around on the prime ministerial plane to get the Prime Minister's attention, and he put the idea of the NBN on the back of a napkin, famously. That's how this all started. So it is unsurprising that, yet again, another idea developed on the back of a napkin, which is this bill, is being presented to the House.

This bill is a political scare from the Labor Party, who has run out of ideas and sought to play politics. We've seen them run these sorts of scares before. We saw it in the 2016 election with 'Mediscare'. This bill is 'telescare'. It's an idea that somehow there are people who want to privatise the NBN and it must be stopped. But it's rubbish. This bill is a complete scare and a complete scam. It's like the scams you get when you're texted or called by people from around the world, except what makes this so tragic is that this is legislation.

What's next from this government? Are we going to get a bill for an act to prevent the privatisation of His Majesty the King? That would be 'monarch scare'. Are we going to get a bill for an act to prevent the privatisation of this parliament? That would be 'parliscare'. Or are we going to get a bill for an act to prevent the privatisation of the ADF? That would be 'digger scare'. This is symptomatic of a government that has run out of ideas and run out of puff.

The truth is that people are deserting the NBN in droves. People in my community, particularly, are deserting the NBN in droves. We know this because of the satellite figures. NBN satellite figures show it is down to 85,000 customers. Starlink, its major competitor—a heroic company to many people in my community who could not connect to the NBN but have opted to go with Starlink—is now at 270,000 customers.

You don't need to believe me when I say this bill does absolutely nothing. You can believe the minister herself in her second reading speech on this bill, where she said, 'This bill would not change the operation of the NBN.' It does nothing to make people's lives better and it does nothing to make people's service better in relation to the NBN. She also said, 'Since the government has no intention to sell the NBN, there's no requirement for a legislative sale scheme.' So, given the government has got no intention to sell the NBN, why are we wasting precious parliamentary time on these things? This is a Seinfeld bill. It's a bill about nothing from a Seinfeld government—a government about nothing.

I want to talk about some of the real challenges Australians are facing today with the NBN that should be the subject of this bill. They are challenges that I have raised with this minister repeatedly since this government came to office, in 2022. I have to say the minister has been very polite and listened to me and so on, but we haven't got the action. So there are still people in my community who are dealing with inadequate NBN services, which is making their lives very difficult.

I wrote to the minister as early as 22 August 2022, asking her to look at upgrades and different technology choices for the people who are at Knights Road, Galston, at Fuggles Road and Orana Road, Kenthurst, and at Dural East, all of whom had said that the technology solution that had been proposed for them was inadequate because they were on fixed wireless and they were looking for fixed line. I'll explain why fixed wireless was inadequate. It's particularly because of the topography of those areas in my electorate and because of the tree canopy, which make the fixed wireless service the wrong sort of service. What we were looking for were more place based solutions, which would have been available—had the Morrison government been re-elected—as part of the regional telecommunications report which was led by Luke Hartsuyker and which had a particular focus on peri-urban communications in electorates like mine around Australia. So I met with the minister shortly thereafter, and I went back to her again a year later to describe some of the issues that still remained in relation to the NBN in my community.

I want to tell the House about some of the issues that I raised with the minister—issues which are still unresolved today. The lack of consistency and the quality of coverage across various NBN technologies has impacted people's lives in my community in terms of their needs, like doing schoolwork, and accessing medical services and technology. My electorate has all three NBN technologies: fixed line, fixed wireless and satellite. Consumers largely don't have a say in which technology is delivered, but the quality of service they get is radically different. The peri-urban areas of the electorate experience the worst communication issues, and many of them have reported being unable to complete schooling, to run local businesses or to access medical services and being cut off from communications. Key issues with the NBN that contribute are constant slow speeds and performance, inability to connect, planned and unplanned dropouts, degrading infrastructure and unreliable communications with telcos.

This isn't a Third World country. This isn't some remote location in Australia; this is metropolitan Sydney. I talked about Knights Road, Galston. In that area, the residents are served by fixed wireless. As I said, the topography and the tree coverage makes that technology an inappropriate choice for the NBN. Residents who couldn't connect through fixed wireless were told to use satellite but couldn't connect. The lack of telecommunications infrastructure was exemplified by the resident with the tower for the fixed wireless service on her property being unable to connect to the NBN. At my urgings, NBN then organised their top technician to visit the property and examine the situation. The resulting examination confirmed that they couldn't connect to the NBN at their own property. This is what people in my community are dealing with, and this is why we need an NBN bill that actually deals with some of these issues—not these political stunts.

I want to tell the House the story of Northholm Grammar, one of the great schools of my electorate. Northholm Grammar at Arcadia is heavily impacted by poor telecommunications. Presently—and we're talking 2024 now—there is no NBN technology available to them that would allow them to operate effectively, as the fixed wireless that's available to them would not meet the school's needs. Many areas of the school, including primary school classrooms, have zero mobile coverage. This presents significant challenges for staff and students and, additionally, is a major safety issue. Teaching and administrative work are heavily impacted by poor internet connection, and this is currently the primary focus of the school board and the wider school community, as it heavily hinders the standard of education that the children are receiving.

Independent service providers have advised Northholm Grammar that the school needs a 1,000 megabits up/1,000 megabits down link in order to operate effectively and that this should be delivered over a reliable technology, such as fibre. But, currently, the fastest plan available on the NBN is 75 megabits per second up and 10 megabits per second down. The school has outsourced and connected via a private ISP but is only getting 200 up/200 down as a connection. The minister knows these problems because I raised them with her more than a year ago, but we've seen no action, and those problems continue today. They continue in other areas as well.

While the government is spending more time trying to create a distraction around the NBN rather than addressing the issues my constituents are facing, this government's politicking has taken precedence over delivery of fixing issues, and I hear about them almost every day. Take Chris from Castle Hill, for example. Chris has experienced nine interruptions over a one-month period from 6 November to 5 December last year. His wife also had her business disrupted when her office internet and phone were cut off. My office raised the issue with Telstra, who advised it was an NBN issue and recommended that we contact the NBN. The NBN then recommended that Chris contact Telstra and go through them. It's the classic bureaucratic runaround that so many Australians get with the NBN.

Take Ron from Berowra Heights, who had his house disconnected from the NBN last year to allow for building works. Ron was then unable to have it reconnected. He inquired with Telstra and the NBN multiple times to ask that he be connected, only to be told he was connected. This wasn't the case. A technician was meant to attend his house on 28 February but never attended. This government committed to customer service, yet what have we seen? A real lack of it, despite us raising these issues with the minister and with NBN.

Alfons lives in Galston. He contacted Telstra to have the NBN connected to his property. When they arrived, NBN were unable to install the service. They were unable to decide how and where to install the service. One side of the property had too many trees and the other was too close to the solar panels. After they checked everywhere on the property, all services to the local tower were declared poor services. This is not an issue his neighbours, all of whom have more trees on their properties and already have fixed wireless installed, have faced. NBN has now listed the property as satellite only, and Telstra is unable to assist due to this. Alfons wants NBN to check the other towers in the area but is unable to contact NBN, and Telstra is unable to assist due to the 'satellite only' label.

These are real problems that real Australians are facing while we're debating this Seinfeld bill. This government is spending time putting together a bill for a political fight instead of fixing the problems in my community and trying to help people like Barbara from Arcadia. Barbara's family home is stuck on dial-up internet that drops out multiple times a day. They have four mobile phones in their house, and all need internet to get mobile connection. Barbara is unable to access 4G in her own home.

Perhaps the minister might spend some time working to solve the issues of Alan in Cherrybrook. Alan has internet disruptions, so he contacted his internet provider, who advised the issue was with NBN. When my office reached out to the NBN, they were advised that it wasn't an NBN issue and that, if it was, Alan should go through his provider, who would then contact NBN. Rabbit holes are the only way that NBN seems to deal with these issues, and ultimately the government, as owner of NBN, is responsible.

This government's lack of commitment to delivering the NBN is slowing down people's education. For instance, David had his NBN cut and was unable to get an alternative service through his provider, who scheduled NBN to install a connection. Due to David's location at Berowra Waters, the NBN refused to attend and cited a lack of commercial access and site safety concerns. David was himself willing to hire a barge or a water taxi to resolve the problem. David has had to purchase Starlink services to gain access to the internet but is struggling with access due to the cliff in his back yard blocking access. He is now attempting to lift the antenna higher in order to gain internet access. David relies on the internet to do his university course, as Australians who are studying all over this country do.

When my constituents next get in touch with me about the issues they're having with the NBN, I'll remind them this government is committed to political bills like this one and wasting this parliament's time rather than fixing their issues. There are real challenges that our community faces with the NBN, particularly in my community of Berowra and throughout the peri-urban areas where the NBN connection is inadequate and where the quality of service that NBN is providing to those people who want to upgrade their connection is completely absent. We need a government that is serious about ensuring that all Australians have access to the NBN and is focusing this parliament's time, as it should be focused, on improving the access of Australians rather than on political stunts like this bill.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024. When I listen to the member for Berowra, it's almost as if those nine terrible years of the coalition government never happened. Their policy was to demolish the NBN. In 2010, they actually put out a policy that poured scorn on the NBN.

Ross Pratt, a local businessman up in Esk, saw me at the Toogoolawah State High School awards night and raised an issue concerning the future of the NBN under the coalition. He said: 'The NBN was a transformative initiative for Australia's IT sector. Unfortunately, under the previous communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, later Prime Minister, the project was mismanaged, resulting in a far inferior product. The decision to rely on outdated copper cabling already beyond its life span was shortsighted. This choice burdened taxpayers with unnecessary costs and delivered a network that is struggling to meet the country's needs.' I say amen to that, Ross. You absolutely got it in a country area like that. Esk, of course, would have had fibre to the premises, being a country town, but those opposite refused to go ahead with fibre to the premises. I'm going to give a bit of a history lesson because the member for Berowra needs a history lesson after that sort of speech.

The Rudd government announced it would bypass the existing copper network. Do you remember that word 'copper'? The coalition put their faith in copper. We said we would bypass the copper network and construct a new national network combining fibre-to-the-premises, fixed-wireless and satellite technologies. The fibre-to-the-premises rollout planned to reach approximately 93 per cent of premises in Australia by June 2021. Unfortunately, we lost the 2013 election. Fibre to the premises was to replace the copper network but the coalition, of course, never agreed to it.

In 2010, the coalition took their communications policy to that election and it was described as ‘undercooked’. They pledged just $6 billion and were going to wind up the NBN and sell it off. That was their policy in 2010. I remember Andrew Robb, the finance minister at the time, saying that the Labor government was betting the house on a single technology. They backed it up in 2013 with then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, and then opposition spokesperson for communications, Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull was given the responsibility 'to demolish the NBN'. Those opposite argued that the demand for telecommunication services would not be very significant. They poured scorn on the idea, ran a few videos, and that was basically what they thought. That was the degree of digital understanding and literacy of those opposite had during their time in opposition. Then, when they got into government, they announced the same thing.

In 2013, the coalition announced that the NBN would deliver a mix of old and new technologies, a multitechnology mix, and Malcolm Turnbull was talking about this all the time. They completely botched it up. It blew out. We ended up with an inferior product, as Ross Pratt, the local businessman who works in this area of computing in Esk said, and we on this side had to fix it up. Just before the last election, those opposite realised they had failed, so they announced a bit more money to start rolling out fibre to the premises. So I won't cop any lectures and sermons from those opposite on the NBN.

This legislation is about making sure the NBN is owned by the Australian people. We want to make sure they have fast, reliable and affordable internet now and into the future. Whether you are in Esk, where Ross is working, or in Ipswich in my electorate, we want to make sure students have the capacity to access the information they need for their assignments and exams, we want businesses to run productively and we want videoconferencing for patients to receive telehealth services. That is critical for regional and rural areas.

I have always been bemused and befuddled by the LNP members in Queensland, who know very well telecommunications are so critical to rural Queensland. Yet when they got in, they kowtowed to the far right of the Liberal Party and decided they were not going to go and do it. But what got me was that the bloke who claimed he invented the internet, Malcolm Turnbull, was also the bloke who tried to destroy the NBN. We on this side are not going to let any of that happen. We are not. We want to make sure the NBN is owned by those people to whom it belongs—the Australian public.

We have done a number of things. First, we have invested $2.4 billion to expand the full-fibre NBN access to 1.5 million additional premises, including 660,000 in rural and regional communities. Those opposite did not do any of that when they were in, none of it, yet they purport to adequately represent those communities. Second, from September next year, we are boosting download speeds by up to five times the current speeds at no extra wholesale cost. Thirdly, we are rolling out more fibre in the fixed-line network, upgrading the fixed-wireless network and planning for the future needs of regional communities like mine. We are keeping NBN in public hands and we are going to lock in an affordable and accessible high speed. It is critical infrastructure. It was at the time the biggest infrastructure program any Australian government had done. The NBN is so important, reaching over 12.4 million premises across the country.

New figures out clearly show more than nine million homes and businesses are now able to access the fastest broadband speeds on the NBN. This is an important milestone. It's important because faster speeds provide a world-class experience for consumers, whether they're connected for work, study or entertainment. We know the average data usage in Australia has increased 10 times over the past 10 years, with the average home now hosting 22 internet-connected or smart devices. That's why it's possible to do this; it's critical to do it. Research shows the NBN has delivered $122 billion in economic uplift since 2022 and supported the creation of 169,000 jobs, the equivalent of a 1.3 per cent increase in our labour force.

At the time, communities like mine told us that the job of upgrading the NBN was not complete, and I got that just last week when I was at the Somerset Regional Council meeting with the mayor and the councillors up there. Australians simply don't trust the coalition not to flog off the NBN as was their policy previously in opposition, as they did with Telstra. They just don't. This bill will ensure the NBN continues to deliver to all Australians, providing digital inclusion and price certainty for industry and consumers. We're delivering on our election commitments, including in my electorate. As Australia's connectivity needs continue to grow, we're going to need faster and better NBN. We're keeping the NBN in public hands because we want to make sure that we look after consumers. A monopoly power and private hands is not the way to go.

I'm going to give a quick overview of the bill. The bill will amend the National Broadband Network Companies Act to ensure that ongoing public ownership is required. The bill incorporates that because we're wanting to make it clear that the NBN preserved in public ownership is an explicit requirement, and it will remove the current conditions for terminating government ownership by repealing part 3 of the act. The Albanese government's committed to keeping NBN in public ownership already through an updated statement of expectations issued in December 2022, confirming the government's commitment and policy position.

The bill makes a commitment in terms of a legislative framework. The bill removes existing legislative conditions which would allow the privatisation of the company. Ongoing government ownership of the NBN will keep wholesale broadband prices more affordable for consumers than if the company was in private ownership. The government will support a strong regulatory oversight of the NBN and a special access undertaking with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to cap wholesale prices. What's more, we're delivering the fibre and fixed wireless upgrades we took to the 2024 election on time and on budget, which is effectively a first for any government in this area. This is very important for my electorate in Queensland.

Queensland is the most decentralised mainland state, with about half our population living outside the capital of Brisbane and south-east corner with a lot of regional and remote communities including in my electorate. My electorate is both outer suburban and regional and takes in the majority of Ipswich, one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, the Karana Downs region and the rural Somerset region including rural Ipswich as well. For my constituents, having access to fast, reliable quality internet is not a luxury; it's a 21st-century critical capacity and necessity. This is precisely why, before the election, we committed to investing $2.4 billion to expand that fibre access I referred to.

Thanks to that commitment, large parts of Ipswich, the Karana Downs area and the Somerset region as well as surrounding areas like the South Burnett and the Lockyer Valley are now able to join the 21st century and upgrade to full-fibre broadband connection. Indeed, more than 34,000 families and small businesses in Blair can now access superfast internet thanks to our strong investment in the network. These long-suffering families and small businesses have had to settle for the coalition's dodgy copper network until now. In contrast, world-class fibre broadband means faster upload and download speeds and a more reliable connection.

I will just make this point: if you were to go from Karana Downs to the north all the way down towards Ripley and right through the middle of Ipswich, which is one of the most densely concentrated parts of Queensland with a population of 260,000 people, under the coalition, you wouldn't get fibre to the premises; you would get fibre to the node. It's just slightly better than ADSL 2, all through the middle of Ipswich. It goes to show the contempt the coalition had for my community. In contrast, we are getting fibre to the premises in these areas. We're committing to making sure that so many parts of my electorate that didn't get access to it are upgraded. Areas that can't access full fibre network upgrades will get satellite and will transition from satellite to fixed wireless for the first time, thanks to a $480 million investment to improve broadband connectivity in the bush. As part of this, 14 locations in rural Ipswich and surrounding areas, like the Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim, and 13 locations in the Somerset region—more than 20 per cent of the total 120,000 premises that are eligible—will be able to move to a fixed wireless connection by December this year. This means fast and more consistent speeds for families and small businesses in these rural areas, as well as access to high-speed plans. We've also installed a backup NBN Sky Muster satellite service in Kilcoy in the upper Somerset region in the northern end of my electorate to boost internet quality in the area. This vital infrastructure will help build this community and help them stay connected during a natural disaster, which is so critical because all these country towns get cut off during floods. It could be the difference between life and death, and it certainly is the difference in terms of the viability of businesses.

Our government is working across the NBN network to move from fixed line to fixed wireless and satellite technologies to deliver quality communications infrastructure in my community and in the various country towns across my electorate. We're delivering on our plan for a better NBN. It's essential for the positive vision my constituents voted for at the last election. As I said, last week, I met with the Somerset Regional Council, who were very interested to know how telecommunications upgrades were progressing. We wanted to put fibre to the premises in all these country towns, and we aspire to doing that. They were part of the thousand rural communities and country towns that had fibre to the premises taken away by those opposite when they won the election in 2013. So what we're doing here is a game changer for our regions, and we're supporting it. We know small businesses start up in these areas. After that meeting with the council that I referred to, I went to the Brisbane Valley Roasters in Esk where I grabbed a takeaway coffee and talked to a few people there, including one of the local police officers. We've seen people for the first time being able to access internet speeds that allow them to study online. That's why Ross Pratt in Esk is so correct with his computer knowledge and his business in that community.

This is a nation-building investment, ensuring that more people in Ipswich and the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area get access to the full opportunities the digital economy has to offer. So, in terms of hearing speeches from the member for Berowra and others, I say that they should have a look at history and at the failures of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, during their nine years, to get it right. They should look at the blowouts, their addiction to anything other than fibre to the premises and their obsession with copper. They may as well have been committed to a Model T Ford, in terms of digital technology. That's what those opposite were addicted to. They really failed monumentally. There's a massive divide between us and them in this area. They completely and utterly failed during their nine years, so for them to give us lectures and sermons on our perceived or alleged failing is a complete waste of time and a denial of the fact and the reality and, certainly, the experience of history.

Debate adjourned.