Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry. We heard the Prime Minister promise that everyone would have access to the NBN by the end of 2016. By the end of 2016, over seven million premises were still waiting for access to the NBN. We heard the Prime Minister promise his NBN would be faster and cheaper, yet the reality is he is delivering a second-rate NBN that is slower and more expensive. We heard the Prime Minister promise he would deliver the NBN for $29.5 billion. His multi-technology mess now costs nearly $50 billion. That is a blowout of $20 billion. On 11 October 2016, the Prime Minister hailed the coalition's NBN as one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in Australia's history. If by 'great turnaround' the Prime Minister means backflipping on every NBN promise made to the Australian people, falling short of every target, overseeing soaring complaints and halting the HFC rollout because it doesn't work, then, yes, it truly is one of the most outstanding turnarounds in Australian history. But it clearly isn't something to be proud of.

On Friday, 1 December 2017, the Townsville Bulletin reported that the Vietnam Veterans' Federation Townsville Inc. had no internet to communicate with clients or the Department of Veterans' Affairs for over a week. Both their phone and their internet lines were cut off without warning and they were not able to provide services to their clients. The Vietnam Veterans' Federation Townsville Inc's secretary-treasurer, Chris Mills, stated, 'We can't function; we are doing things manually but we cannot finalise anything.' You can only imagine the increased stress this would have placed on the association itself and on its volunteers, not to mention on our veterans. The electorate of Herbert has the largest garrison city in the nation. It is simply unacceptable to have one of our prominent associations cut off without warning.

My office receives reports from constituents regarding NBN issues on a daily basis. Recently I was contacted by a local small business that runs software development. The director of the business stated that they were in a building where 80 per cent of the tenants could connect to the NBN but the other 20 were left in the wind. This building, I might add, had been serviceable since March 2014. As a software development business, you can imagine the significant financial impact this would have on their business, Mr Deputy Speaker. Small businesses in my community are under enough pressure as it is at present. The failings of this government's NBN should not be an additional burden.

This is simply not good enough for households and businesses in 2017. Our nation has become a laughing stock on this issue and we are falling behind the rest of the world when we should be leading the world and the nation. Complaints data released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman for the 2016-17 year reported a 160 per cent surge in NBN complaints. For the first time, the TIO complaints were outpacing the growth in the number of NBN services. Internet complaints are now also the highest source of complaints, surpassing mobile and landline. Australians are frustrated and deeply disappointed with their experience of the NBN. Under this government, it has become the norm to receive slow speeds, dropouts and unreliable services. Issues and complaints are being buck-passed without accountability. Appointments with technicians are being made only to find that no-one turns up.

This government needs a complete reality check when it comes to the NBN. This appalling record is an incoherent mess. In 2013, the Prime Minister had no HFC in his NBN rollout plan. In 2014, he had 3.2 million HFC premises. In 2015 this increased to four million premises. In 2016 this decreased to 2.8 million premises. In 2017 this increased to 3.1 million. It begs the question: what will it be in 2018? Despite all of this, the government claims that 85 per cent of NBN users are satisfied. This only shows the complete disconnect that this government has with the Australian people.

I call on the Turnbull government to stop sitting on their hands and to take action. Labor never planned on this second-rate form of NBN, so it is time to stop the blame game. They are responsible for this abysmal disaster that is called the NBN, and it's the responsibility of the current government— (Time expired)

See this speech in context