Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. How will the Albanese Labor government's legislation to keep the National Broadband Network in public ownership deliver better broadband at affordable prices for Australian families—in particular, regional communities—and are there any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for her question. Labor, of course, founded the National Broadband Network to deliver fast, reliable and affordable broadband to all Australians. It's an essential piece of national infrastructure that connects millions of Australians, irrespective of where they live or work.

The Albanese government has made significant investments in fibre and fixed wireless upgrades, delivering improvements for Australians. When we came to government less than 300,000 premises had a pathway to upgrade from copper to full fibre. Today that figure is four million. We've upgraded over 2,300 tours on the fixed wireless network, boosting average-user download speeds by 133 per cent. We've also uncapped satellite broadband plans, delivering educational benefits to students in regional and remote communities.

Public ownership is delivering big public benefits when it comes to the NBN. In contrast, when state Liberal governments sold off electricity assets, consumer prices rose three times faster than other services; yet today the Liberals and Nationals voted against the government's legislation to secure the NBN in public ownership. Those opposite want publicly owned nuclear reactors, but they don't want a publicly owned NBN. They're prepared to sell off public assets to pay for their irresponsible and unfunded nuclear policy, and the broadband pushovers in the National Party will let them do it—just like when they flogged off Telstra. For consumers, what does that mean? It means higher prices, reduced services and cuts to investments, especially in the regions.

It's important for the House to understand what those opposite tried to get away with in the dying days of their government. They wanted to increase the regulated NBN wholesale price by inflation plus three per cent each year to 2040. You might ask: why was that? It's widely understood that the purpose of this staggering proposition was to lay the groundwork to maximise the future sale price of the NBN. Over a decade ago, the Liberals promised to deliver a third-rate copper NBN for $29 billion. Then it became $41 billion, then $49 billion and then $57 billion—a sushi train of incompetence and cost blowouts.

In contrast, this government has delivered two budget surpluses, and our NBN upgrades are on time and on budget. The choice for Australians, especially in the regions, is crystal clear.