Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak on the Australian government's response to the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee report, Regional telecommunications review 2015.

My office, which is based in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, receives calls—as many senators' offices do—from not only New South Wales but around the country, complaining about problems with telecommunications and, specifically, the lack of a decent NBN system around the country. Many people are appalled. The promises that the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, made about how the mixed technology would suddenly deliver all these great things on telecommunications for people around the country have not materialised. None of that has materialised—none of it.

In my local area—the lower Blue Mountains—people are being told that a 1.5-megabit uptake is okay. That is almost dial-up. It is just a bit better than dial-up, and they are being told that that is acceptable. They are having to pay $40, $50, $60 a month to get a miserable 1.5 megabits. This is pathetic! Prior to the election, over three years ago, we were told by the Prime Minister that the NBN would be rolled out and everyone would have access to good telecommunications. Yet what has happened? Telecommunications is still an absolute disgrace. The government is going for a system that is based on old technology. It is going for a system that is based on corroding copper.

I had a problem with my own ADSL2 connection at home. They checked it over the phone, as they do. They tried to make adjustments over the phone, remotely. They said, 'No, there's a problem; we'll come out.' They opened the pit. The pit was absolutely full of water. The connections were being kept together by cling wrap and tape, to try and keep them from corroding even further. This is a system that is not fit for purpose for a modern country trying to deal with modern technology.

The current Prime Minister has conned the Australian public, because the system that he is proposing is a second-rate system that will not deliver. It is a system that he said would be in place by now at a reasonable cost to the public. Well, the cost has blown out. We still have a poor system. We still have a system that you cannot operate. We are talking about putting in a second city airport at Badgerys Creek and how it will create all these business opportunities. Well, it will not create home business opportunities in the Blue Mountains, because you cannot run a business with no decent internet connection.

This government has been an abject failure in a whole range of areas. Its first budget epitomised what this government is about. It is about austerity. It is about austerity policies that harm working-class people in this country. When working-class people want to try and get on a bit and run a small business from their own home, they cannot do it because the technology is so bad and the promises that the Prime Minister made have not been delivered.

This is another failure from this government. It is another failure from a Prime Minister who the public are seeing day after day as being totally incapable of running the country and making a decision. All he knew was that he wanted to get into the Lodge and he was going to do whatever he could to get into the Lodge. This is a government that cannot deliver for working- and middle-class families in this country. This is a government that promised much on telecommunications and has delivered nothing.

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

The doormat, Senator O'Sullivan, from the National Party has piped up. You should be ashamed of yourself! The National Party have allowed this government to attack working-class people in the regions and in rural Australia, and you have been absolutely silent. You have been absolutely silent on it. This is a disgraceful government. It cannot deliver on telecommunications. It has lied to the Australian public. (Time expired)