Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are just over eight months since the longest election campaign in Australia's modern history. Our opponents thought it would be smart to put our community through a dragged-out, waffle-filled, cliche-ridden campaign that went on week after week, month after month. Some of us—I think on both sides—were wondering if it was ever going to end. It was like political purgatory, except that at least purgatory offers the promise of heaven at the end. We did not get heaven. What we got was the opportunity to stand here eight months later still debating the address-in-reply. Why are we doing this eight months later? Because this government do not have anything else do in this parliament. They are not passing legislation. They are hoping no-one will make a fuss, but I would like to reiterate the gravity of this matter and anticipate, on the public's behalf, a serious response to these inexcusable actions.

The Prime Minister is so utterly obsessed with the Leader of the Opposition that he has mentioned him in question time 570 times since the election. If I were Bill, I would be worried. That infatuation is just a little bit concerning. If only the Prime Minister were concerned about Australians' jobs and not his own. That is something that would be important to us. But that is the whole problem: this Prime Minister does not have a direction and does not have priorities. Four years of Liberal government and the thing we keep hearing about is the plan. It is like 'the Baldrick government'—everything is a plan. It is straight out of Blackadder. 'A plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel,' will be the next iteration of it. Instead of making positive reforms and passing legislation that would benefit hardworking Australians, the Prime Minister has decided his priority is to water down race hate laws and make bigotry more accessible. Instead of making sure that funding goes to our schools, hospitals and small businesses, he is desperate to give away $50 billion to big business and big banks—the same banks, with record profits, that are now closing much needed branches in country areas such as Broadford.

Labor, on the other hand, have stood firm with our priorities. We continue to fight for what matters to Australians: local jobs, local apprentices, protecting Medicare and building a strong economy that delivers for all. One cannot help but wonder just how much better the last eight months would have been had it been Prime Minister Shorten at the reins—a PM who puts the people before himself. We on this side of the House have a pretty simple concept—a concept that those opposite just cannot seem to grasp: we keep our promises.

The Liberal government promised that every single Australian home would be connected to the NBN by the end of last year. But here we are in 2017 and seven million homes are still waiting. This sits firmly at the Prime Minister's feet. The MTM, as it is now called, is the Malcolm Turnbull mess. What are they going to say to the elderly in my community who are left without phones because of the dodgy NBN deals? What are they saying about the countless mobile phone black spots in McEwen that mean that we do not have access to the most basic needs, such as emergency services? I am sick of the promises that have time and time again been delayed and changed—jeopardising small businesses and impacting the daily lives of the towns in our communities because of this government's failure.

Under our plan, the NBN would have delivered a world-class fibre-optic network to more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses. But, under the misguided leadership of then communications minister Turnbull, the Liberal government decided to put in a second-class copper NBN and Australia's internet speeds dropped from 30th to 60th in the world. Since moving back to Whittlesea from Broadford, I have experienced firsthand the failure of the government's disastrous NBN rollout. With no internet connection at home I was forced to pay for an expensive wireless internet dongle. Parts of my town were only just being connected to the National Broadband Network late last year. It means that we are playing catch-up with global internet standards.

It does not matter if you live close to the city or in one of the many towns across our region, you have been impacted by this rollout. South Morang was supposed to be one of the first places to have NBN installed. Communities such as Sunbury, Doreen and Mernda were promised NBN connection by 2015. It is now 2017—and guess what? They are still waiting because of this government's failure. I have constituents contacting me to tell me that they have to drive to their offices in the Melbourne CBD at all hours for conference meetings with European and American stakeholders and business partners. The internet in their homes is so unreliable due to the dodgy NBN that they cannot even be sure that it is going to work.

We have whole communities unable to access the existing internet service, because of an NBN they have not seen and certainly cannot use. What kind of innovative and agile plan is for that a quality, reliable internet in a modern country? It is absolutely unacceptable that less than 30 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne there are families and businesses who cannot get access to broadband. I have lost count of the frustrated parents throughout our communities who have spoken to me about having to bunk down at McDonalds because that is the only reliable source of internet for their children to do their homework. It is disappointing. Because of this government's delays, many of our small businesses have had no choice but to move. That is jobs lost in regional communities because of this government's failure. The severely limited wireless towers in my community just do not cut it. We need results and we need leadership, but they are certainly not going to come from this government.

As the fastest-growing region in Australia, Victoria makes up 27 per cent of our nation's population, with more than a thousand moving to the towns in our community each month. In spite of this, the government is only investing a miniscule 77c for every $10 of investment in infrastructure. This government is starting a growing gulf in critical infrastructure. We need investment. During the last election campaign, the Liberal Party and the National Party—because they both decided to run candidates this time—did not give McEwen one cent of infrastructure promises—not one. The member for Corangamite can snigger all she wants, but these people—

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Sit down. You can't take a point of order on that, because you were sniggering. Don't waste my time.

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