Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

A couple of weeks ago the Minister for Communications visited my electorate of Corio to spruik the government's second-rate broadband network. The minister came to Geelong with much fanfare, using as his mode of transport one of the largest rail infrastructure projects in Australia's history, the Regional Rail Link, which was made possible by the former Labor government. But while that project actually happened, when it comes to the NBN the minister has been found wanting. The minister promised during the 2013 election that all premises would have access to download speeds of 25 to 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016. But is this happening? Certainly not in my electorate, even though, as the minister has discovered, we now have some very impressive rail timetables.

Under Labor, NBN Co had begun work on the fibre network in Geelong. In June 2013, work began to bring fibre broadband to about 2,400 homes and businesses. Work was scheduled to deliver fibre to about 44,000 homes and businesses in Greater Geelong, from Lovely Banks to St Leonards, from Clifton Springs to Corio. But despite promising to honour all contracts prior to the election, in government Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull cancelled the entire fibre rollout to Corio. Nearly two years into their term, the coalition has only just started rolling out their second-rate network on the Bellarine Peninsula. Despite promising to deliver the NBN to all homes by 2016, the coalition has not added a single existing home in Geelong to their 18-month rollout schedule.

This stands in stark contrast to our neighbour, Ballarat, which had the NBN rolled out prior to the 2013 election. Their good fortune in being at the head of the queue in Labor's rollout of the NBN has placed Ballarat firmly in the 21st century, while Geelong loses ground.

For regional Australia the NBN offered the prospect that businesses could now operate in cities like Geelong and Ballarat, when previously the only option was Melbourne. In regional Australia we could aspire to have our share of the economic activity which had previously been possible only in our capitals.

Ms Henderson interjecting—

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