Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

As Senator Colbeck would well recall, in late 2013, when our predecessors left office, the rollout of the NBN in Tasmania was a mess. The contractor had downed tools and virtually no premises had been connected for many months. All up, only 7,000 fixed-line premises in Tasmania were ever connected under Labor, despite the fact that the rollout actually kicked off in that state. Compare that to the end of 2017, where close to 267,000 homes and businesses in Tasmania are ready to connect. More than 160,000 Tasmanian premises are now accessing the internet over the NBN in Tassie, and the entire rollout is planned to be finished by the end of this year, which will make Tasmania the first state to be finished. In terms of consumer experience in Tasmania, the research shows that Tasmania has had the biggest improvement of any state in intensity of internet use.