Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I could not resist the prop! I know that there are rules, and I apologise. Broken Hill, a community of 20,000 people in the far west of New South Wales, was told by the NBN that, because of the location of the points of interconnect—of which there are some 125 across Australia, the nearest one being Dubbo—the fibre backhaul goes straight past Broken Hill and straight back to points east. Actually, it is one of the few things the government has done in telecommunications that I think is pretty good. There was a long and complicated explanation about why Broken Hill could not hook onto it. Mr Quigley said it is a bit like having a fast freeway going past your house: you cannot get an off-ramp just where you want it. Well, it is not quite like that. The facility is there, the point of interconnect is there. All it takes is a decision by NBN Co. that the community of Broken Hill be serviced.

The answers that we got on notice as members of the NBN joint committee were not convincing at all. I do not usually raise the charge of political interference in this place. I only do so in this case because I believe there cannot be any other reason why we are simply being put on the backburner so badly. But the NBN truck is coming to Broken Hill and the ads are in the Broken Hill paper! A senator for New South Wales talked about the NBN in Albury to the people of Broken Hill, perhaps thinking that they may be only an hour apart. Obviously this senator for New South Wales is not travelling out of Sydney and seeing the vast distances that we have to deal with. I look forward to the day when we are in government and we can prioritise fast broadband for the regions I represent so that they can get the communications that they absolutely deserve.

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