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

Thanks, Senator Smith. As a matter of fact, I can provide an update. NBN's annual results show the company continues to make solid progress in delivering a broadband network that will bring enormous benefits to the nation. One point six million premises were activated in 2017-18, making it a record year for customers connected. These additional subscribers contributed to the achievement of nearly $2 billion in annual revenue for the company. These results are light years ahead of those achieved by our predecessors. Take, for example, the total revenue achieved in the 2013 financial year, four years into the rollout. It wasn't $1.7 billion. It wasn't even $170 million. NBN's revenue for the 2013 financial year was $17 million.

NBN's full-year results do demonstrate that the company is continuing to deliver against its construction of financial targets, despite a slowdown in activations and ready-for-service numbers in the second half. The hard decisions taken by NBN to offer better value plans for higher speed tiers and to pause HFC sales over the past eight months have been rewarded with significant improvements in customer experience. Network congestion has fallen from more than five hours a week on average in June last year to just 25 minutes per week in June this year.

Can I take the opportunity to congratulate Bill Morrow and his successor announced today, Mr Stephen Rue, for another year of strong performance. The government welcomes the appointment of Mr Rue to the role of chief executive officer of NBN Co, and we pay tribute to Mr Morrow for his exemplary leadership at the company's helm over the past four years.