Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to put some more remarks on the record with regard to the nbn and its disgraceful rollout, frankly, on the Central Coast. The digital divide—the gap between those who have access to the internet and those who can afford to pay for that access and have the ability to use the network—is quite simply a gaping chasm on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

A new report entitled Measuring Australia's Digital Divide: the Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2016, which was released last month, outlines the extent of the digital divide in Australia. It makes for very interesting reading. Swinburne University, in partnership with Telstra, have opening comments in the report that simply spell out the challenges that face Australia right now. The Swinburne University digital inclusion index measures access—that is, the ability to connect to the Internet, the frequency of downloads and uploads, and data allowance; affordability—that is, the share of household income spent on internet access; and ability—that is, the basic skills needed to use the internet and the subsequent confidence, attitudes and activities that come with it. It is that complex set of interplay of the capacity of the machinery itself and the person's capacity.

I am very sad to report that Gosford has the lowest score of all the main regional communities in Australia. It is seventh behind the Gold Coast, Wollongong, Newcastle, Geelong, Townsville and Cairns. In New South Wales it is almost 10 points lower on the scale than Sydney and Wollongong. The Central Coast has certainly been left far behind, as far as broadband is concerned. We may have beautiful beaches and, indeed, an idyllic lifestyle for many on the Central Coast, but we are being left behind in the digital age and it is having an impact. There are no jobs and there is no growth under this Liberal government.

The Liberal Party has no interest in facilitating the advancement of technology based businesses in Gosford and no interest for the students who need the web for their studies. Students who rely on the internet for study are being locked out of the network by slow speeds and a clogged copper system that cannot handle the volume of users at peak times, and these are often the times that students want to study. I have student after student and family after family reporting to me that students come home, they start their homework—and for some families it can be quite a process in itself to get the kids to get into the homework—and the whole speed of the internet that is being delivered by the fake NBN, which they have been forced to take up, is just crashing and people are not able to get their work done. For the Liberals the Central Coast is a live experiment when it comes to technology which big cities can take for granted.

It could have been a lot different and it should have been a lot different. Under the previous Labor government, the Central Coast was earmarked for the real national broadband network—fibre to your home or to your business with speeds and capacities that would have put Australia at the top in the world for internet access. Indeed, Labor did begin rolling out the NBN on the Central Coast—in Gosford, East Gosford and West Gosford. When the then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals were elected, however, they immediately stopped construction on the Central Coast of the information superhighway. Fibre to the premises was put away, and instead people have a goat track in its place: the fibre to the node copper network. It is an absolute disaster, and let's not forget Malcolm promised us the Liberals' NBN would be faster—