Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In regard to the previous speaker: I don't think I've heard so much of what you might find in a paddock with a herd of cows in a long time, but let me know!

Senator Colbeck interjecting—

I'm not talking about grass, just to be clear, Senator Colbeck; I'm talking about the excrement from the dairy herd. Talk about a rewrite of history—I mean, fair dinkum! I don't know where those opposite come off sometimes.

I spoke about these bills, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2019 and the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2019, in the previous parliament. But the government let them lapse, so here we are debating them yet again. This third-term Liberal government's handling of the rollout of the NBN has been, we know, a disaster. Mr Abbott gave the then opposition communications spokesperson, Malcolm Turnbull, the job of destroying the NBN. Well, I will give credit where credit is due: Mr Turnbull and the current Liberal government have done a great job carrying out those instructions. They promised to deliver the NBN for $29.5 billion, and it has now cost $51 billion. They promised everyone would have access to minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second by 2016—a goal they certainly missed. They also promised the multitechnology mix would be faster and cheaper; instead, it has been slower and more expensive. The end result is that there are many premises on the fibre-to-the-node network that cannot even get speeds of 25 megabits per second. That's particularly so in regional areas, where the speeds are often considerably lower than promised—especially in the evenings and during other peak times.

This government have spent $50 billion on a network that cannot even deliver the minimum speeds they promised. It goes to show the lack of foresight of this government. Instead of building a network for the future, they built a network from the past—which is where a lot of them like to live. They could not see that Australia's internet demand would rise into the future. Now we've come to the pointy end. The COVID-19 crisis has seen a massive increase in demand for data over the NBN. In cities and regional areas across Australia, including in our home state of Tasmania—I note there are four Tasmanian senators in this chamber at the moment—demand for data has spiked. A figure reported in the media in April showed that data demand in March increased by more than 70 to 80 per cent during daytime hours compared to figures calculated at the end of February. In just a month, demand jumped by 80 per cent. This government did not have the vision to see that a modern national broadband network would have to deal with significant amounts of video calls, video streaming, access to cloud services and applications. This government did not have the vision to see there would be events that would put a sudden strain on the network.

Labor's plan was for a futureproof, fibre-to-the-premises rollout for nearly all Australians. But the government recklessly destroyed that plan, simply because Labor had proposed it. They made a number of hacks—utilising infrastructure that should have been retired, reworking copper not fit for task and overcrowding the fixed-wireless network—leading to more congestion, slower speeds and, ironically, higher cost over the long term. It is people in regional Australia who are bearing the burden of this government's ineptitude—the people who the Nationals have again failed to represent. We have recently discovered that this government cut $200 million in funding from the regional fixed-wireless network. Worse still, NBN Co tried to conceal that this had occurred and then tried to deny it once they were caught out. I'm sure the Nationals in this chamber are thrilled to know that once again their government, their partners, didn't stand up for regional Australia.

The fixed-wireless network is an important component of the NBN and was always part of Labor's plan for a small proportion of Australians. However, this government and NBN Co claimed they would be delivering 100-megabit-per-second speeds. Now they can only guarantee a minimum of six megabits per second. Recently we heard NBN Co touting the benefits of 100-megabit-per-second speeds. Yes, 100-megabit-per-second speeds would be wonderful. Most of my constituents would be ecstatic to get such speeds. It's just a pity that only one in four premises on the fibre-to-the-node network can actually access those speeds—only one in four, a quarter.

The copper, the last section from the node to people's homes, is just not up to the task. It's like driving from Hobart to Launceston, only to get out of your car in Perth, just south of Hobart, and bike the rest of the way; copper was never designed to carry this kind of network. We've seen the cost of remediating the copper network blow out by $600 million. Wasn't this meant to be cheaper? The cost of building the HFC network has blown out by billions. It has been slower and more expensive to deploy than fibre to the premises. This, too, was a technology choice that was meant to be cheaper.

The NBN was meant to be a new kind of technology for Australia. When the then Labor government decided to build a national broadband network, it did so with the aim of extending universal broadband coverage to regional and remote Australia. This was an important initiative, a true Labor reform, and one of which we remain very proud. But, instead, this government cut corners and tried to patch up the old copper and paper over the cracks. As my dad used to say, 'You should have just done it right the first time.' But the government decided that a dodgy con-job of a network was better than letting Labor take credit for a truly 21st-century fibre network.

The end result of this government's incompetence and its petty politics is the bill we are debating today, a bill to introduce the government's broadband tax—a broadband tax being introduced in the name of regional funding, while cutting regional investment at the same time. Rather than investing in the regions, the government is using this tax revenue to offset cost blowouts in HFC technology deployed in the inner-city areas. This is the same HFC technology, the rollout of which had to be halted because the service was not reliable.

The costs of this network have blown out for the fourth year in a row. It's no secret that the Liberals did not want the NBN satellites to be launched. They mocked the idea that NBN Co would own and launch its own satellites. Under the original fibre plan, the regional rollout was fully cost recovered. Under the multi-technology mix, the NBN has cost more to build, costs more to operate and delivers slower and less reliable speeds. Furthermore, the MTM will require future upgrades that were not necessary under the original fibre plan.

This decision to extend high-speed broadband to unprofitable areas was funded through a universal wholesale pricing regime, and, as it stands, the internal cross-subsidy Labor established amounts to more than $700 million per annum. This meant ABN revenues from services provided in the cities and suburbs would help cross-subsidise higher cost services delivered over wireless and satellites in the region. There was no contemplation of a broadband levy and an internal cross-subsidy; it was one of the other, not both. Yet now the government wants to have both, and the reason for this is quite clear. Since this levy was first formulated, the cost for the fixed wireless and satellite network has not changed. The cost is effectively what was forecast. The key change has been the abandonment of fibre to the premises on the pretence that Australia would get a much cheaper, albeit inferior, multi-technology mix. Instead, we have a more expensive, $51 billion multi-technology mix that does less than the original plan. This inferior multi-technology mix, according to NBN Co's own analysis, will cost $200 million more per annum to maintain and operate, and generates $3 million less in revenue relative to a fibre-to-the-premises network. That is a $500 million per annum earnings gap. To put it another way, because of the decision by the Liberal Party to abandon a fibre NBN, in place, for copper and HFC, Australian taxpayers are up to $500 million worse off every year. That is a staggering figure, and this is the reason why the government needs to implement this additional tax. The copper NBN looks increasingly exposed to competition from 5G. A full-fibre network would have been upgradable as technology improved and able to better compete with emerging wireless technologies now and into the future.

The coalition's 2013 election commitment to deliver the NBN for $29.5 billion and complete it by 2016 is nothing short of a very cruel hoax. The cost of the NBN project increased from $29.5 billion to $51 billion, with a completion date of 2020. As it stands, the NBN is $20 billion over budget and four years behind what the Liberals promised.

This bill proposes to apply a new broadband levy of $7.10 per month on households and businesses connected to a non-NBN network. This will add at least $84 to the annual bill of up to 500,000 residential and business services. The government even wanted to allow its levy to increase to $10 a month. The broadband tax proposed by the Morrison government is both poorly designed and highly regrettable. It has been criticised by the ACCC and the Productivity Commission, and it is disappointing that prior to the 2013 election the Liberals encouraged other companies to deploy networks and compete directly against the NBN, in the full knowledge that this would undercut the NBN business model.

Labor is committed to a sustainable funding arrangement to support and improve NBN services in regional Australia. There is no substitute for a first-class fibre NBN, with sound, long-term economics to support a sustainable funding mechanism. These failures of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government have placed pressure on the economics of the NBN, and it's appropriate to ensure there is a level playing field.

One effect of this broadband levy is that it introduces a price signal that will deter inefficient duplication of the NBN infrastructure and deter cherry-picking of profitable parts of the NBN footprint. Fixed-line operators currently competing in areas the NBN Co intends to service, or those who are considering deploying infrastructure to compete directly with NBN Co down the track, must understand they would be required to make a proportional contribution to support the obligation NBN Co has to service the regions. NBN Co has a unique obligation to service parts of the country that are unprofitable to serve.

Labor supports the establishment of a statutory infrastructure provider regime outlined in the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2019. This will provide additional certainty that, as we move beyond the initial NBN rollout, every Australian home and small business can continue to access a high-speed broadband connection. This is a natural extension of the arrangements Labor put in place nearly 10 years ago through a statement of expectations issued to the NBN Co board. The statement of expectations required NBN Co to make high-speed broadband available to all Australians, regardless of where they live or work. That has happened, and this bill provides certainty that it will continue to happen.

After more than a decade in power, John Howard and his allies in the National Party had left Australia in a broadband backwater. It was Labor that established the principle that all Australians should have access to modern telecommunications infrastructure, and it was Labor that established the National Broadband Network to put this principle into practice. Universal broadband access is a Labor initiative and a Labor achievement, but the Liberals tried to stop it. It was only through the perseverance of the Labor Party and the Australian people that those Luddites opposite were forced to accept a national broadband network as a reality.

Labor will not oppose these bills in this chamber. There were much better and more efficient ways to achieve the government's aims than the bill that is currently before the house, but the government's incompetence and lack of vision have left us in the mess we are in. Regional Australians know that, when it comes to broadband, only Labor will be there to consistently deliver on their behalf. They know that, despite their public relations spin, the Liberals and the Nationals have sold them out time and time again. They voted against universal broadband. They overcrowded the fixed wireless towers so they could skimp on the cost. Just recently they cut $200 million in funding from the regional fixed wireless network. And they didn't even want to launch the satellites. Universal broadband in Australia is an achievement of the Labor Party and the will of the Australian people. As we have done for over a decade, we will continue to put consumers and the regions front and centre of our policymaking.