Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Access Regime and NBN Companies) Bill 2015. But before I talk about this misguided and ideological attempt by the Turnbull-Joyce government to roll back a number of competition- and consumer-friendly reforms that underpin Labor's National Broadband Network, I wish to put it into a little bit of context, and I do so from the context of Australia being obviously an island nation that is reasonably far removed from most of the population centres in the world. This is important, because it illustrates how important it is that we get our communications with the rest of the world correct. We also need to focus on that because we are a country that values higher wages. We have a welfare net and, going back to the harvester cases when it comes to industrial law, we say that our workers are not slaves but need a decent return. That is the context of Australia.

That is why Labor governments for the past 40 or 50 years have always focused on getting the productivity gains right when in government. We do so in the context of protecting wages but making sure that Australia can compete with the rest of the world whilst maintaining those high wages. And how do you do that? In 2016, in the middle of the digital revolution, in the age of technology, you make sure you invest in communications. And we know how important this is. In fact, I was a member of the 43rd parliament, a minority government under Prime Minister Gillard, which came to power only when the Independents who represented the bush saw the benefits of the National Broadband Network. And I know when Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott came to looking, in a dry, empirical way, at what the parties had to offer, what tipped it for those two Independents was the National Broadband Network. Why? Because the NBN, as planned by Labor, delivers for the bush.

Unfortunately, the bloke who missed out was the member for Warringah. He did not understand the NBN. He was proud of the fact that he was a Luddite when it came to technology. He was proud to say that yes, he still writes longhand—not necessarily with a nib or a paintbrush, but he was proud of the fact that he was not savvy. However, I think when he missed out on government because of the National Broadband Network it crystallised in his mind his concerns about the NBN. So, effectively, in the lead-up to the 2013 election, when the polls were looking very good for him, he said, 'Well, I have to do something to keep the bloke I deposed as leader happy and keep him inside the tent.' He had indicated that he wanted to leave parliament, which might have made the member for Warringah happy. Instead, he said, 'All right; you can be in charge of the communications portfolio.' And the member for Wentworth understood communications. He had invested in it, he saw the benefits that flowed from it, he understood the way of the world and where the world is heading when it comes to the digital revolution. He had been involved in communications back when he was at university.

So, the member for Warringah basically appointed the member for Wentworth to the role of sabotaging the NBN. We had all sorts of promises before the election and then, once Prime Minister Abbott was elected by the people of Australia, in that democratic process, we suddenly had a change in approach to the National Broadband Network. We ended up with something that is twice the price, has twice the rollout time and has half the speed, instead of taking Labor's approach of investing in fibre and getting it right with what would be the largest infrastructure rollout in the history of Australia that would particularly benefit the bush, would particularly benefit the Nationals heartland. Instead, we ended up with this sabotaged outfit.

When the communications minister as he then was, the member for Wentworth, said 'We are going to do a rigorous analysis; we'll get Infrastructure Australia to do an independent cost-benefit analysis', that was the promise he made to the Australian people. Instead, when he came to be in office, with some chance to actually have a say in the National Broadband Network, what did he do? He appointed a panel that was full of former Liberal Party staffers, Liberal Party advisers and other noted public critics of Labor's National Broadband Network. And we see that the cost models that the Vertigan panel relied on had been proven to be hopelessly wrong. As the government's second-rate NBN has blown out from the $41 billion assumed in December 2013—not that long ago—now nbn co's latest, August, corporate plan is assuming a cost of $56 billion. So, as I said, it is nearly twice the price.

The possibilities that are there in terms of improving productivity are incredible. I mention the bush particularly, not only in education, because the bush schools would get the benefits first and foremost, but also when it comes to agriculture. Some people like to say that Australia will become the food bowl of Asia as the Asian century rolls out and those populations that we are closest to become our future markets. I am a little more sceptical and think that we might become the delicatessen of Asia rather than the food bowl! But if you are a delicatessen it is all about having niche markets. Our farmers are the best in the world; there are maybe one or two countries that can compete with them when it comes to dry land agriculture and the like. But we still have to transport our food products to Asia, and we can only be that delicatessen if we have good communication opportunities. Rather than just growing stuff broadly, we have to be able to have some niche markets where people will pay top dollar for it. That is the reality of being so far from some markets. We are not a part of the European Union, where they can roll stuff out on trains. We are a long way from some of our Asian markets.

The NBN should bring great productivity gains for this nation. Instead, what have we seen? This second-rate NBN. Not only have the costs gone up from $29.5 billion to $56 billion but also they said they would have it rolled out to all homes in Australia by this year, 2016. What is the new time frame? They are now doubling that, up to 2020. They said that their cut-price, second-rate copper NBN would cost $600 per home. This cost has nearly tripled to $1,600 a home. They said it would only cost about $55 million to patch up the old copper network. This cost has blown out by more than 1,000 per cent. It is not a 10 per cent blow out or a 100 per cent blow out but a 1,000 per cent blow out, to more than $640 million dollars.

Prime Minister Turnbull said that 2.61 million homes would be connected to the pay TV cables by 2016. Now nbn co are forecasting they will connect only 10,000 homes by June 2016. Yet this was an infrastructure plan, a commitment and a promise that many people in my electorate relied on. I remember the candidates' debate in the 2013 election where the No. 1 issue for businesses in Moreton was access to the NBN. It was the No. 1 issue. It did not matter what the business was, they saw the opportunities—just like the communications minister did. I can understand the member for Warringah; I know he does not get technology. We saw that horrific interview with the hologram of Sonny Bill Williams. We still remember that.

But the member for Wentworth, the Prime Minister, the former communications minister, does get the NBN. He does understand it. I can understand the member for Warringah being upset about how the NBN cost him the prime ministership. It was so close, but it just exceeded his grasp. And then, after that significant defeat, he did not even sit in office for two years and he never entered the gates of the Lodge as Prime Minister before he was knifed in the back in the middle of the night. Sadly, the NBN that this Prime Minister—the former communications spokesperson for the Liberal and National parties—is overseeing is a sham.

They said that this second-rate network that they promised to the Australian people would bring in $2.5 billion in revenue in 2016 and 2017. Now they are forecasting only $1.1 billion, so he has blown a $1.4 billion hole in nbn co's revenue line. Unbelievable. Yet today in question time he dared to mention the global financial crisis response that was rolled out by the Labor Party. With these sorts of projections and targets and the way that they hit them, it is unbelievable.

I lay a lot of blame on this panel that was appointed by the minister. The assumptions they made are unbelievable. They assumed, people watching this on the web, that the median household in Australia would require only 15 megabits per second by 2023. Already, 67 per cent of Australians on the NBN are ordering speeds higher than this. The Labor plan was to use fibre, to do it once and to do it right. The sabotage that has taken place, when it comes to Australia's biggest infrastructure program, is almost criminal.

Instead of rolling out a project that was in the nation's interest we had an ideological obsession by the member for Warringah. This was a program that was going to boost productivity and education. This was a program that was going to boost things for farmers, for manufacturers and for so many people in Australia. For the member for Warringah to co-opt the member for Wentworth, who understood the benefits that would flow and who was happy to invest in French fibre while, simultaneously, sabotaging Australian—

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