Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities) Share this | Hansard source

The government's telecommunications reform package is good for consumers, good for industry and good for regional Australia. The passage of these historic reforms will mean a more efficient and competitive telecommunications sector. The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Bill 2017 and the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Bill 2017 implement a coherent three-part package to improve the regulatory framework for the supply of high-speed broadband by amending separation rules and creating new supply and funding arrangements. These bills will improve the provision of high-speed broadband in Australia by making carrier separation rules for high-speed residential networks more effective but also more flexible and giving carriers greater scope to invest in superfast networks and compete. They will improve it by introducing new statutory infrastructure provider obligations on NBN Co and others to support the ongoing delivery of high-speed broadband services. They will also improve it by establishing the Regional Broadband Scheme to provide equitable long-term funding for NBN Co's satellite and fixed wireless services for regional areas.

Telecommunications carriers and consumers will benefit from the changes of separation rules. They will improve competition and investment in the telecommunications market. Consumers will also benefit from the statutory infrastructure provider measures, which will ensure everyone in Australia will be able to access high-speed broadband services upon reasonable request. The rules set out baseline standards for these services: peak downloads of at least 25 megabits per second and peak upload speeds of at least five megabits per second. These services also need to support voice communication on fixed line or fixed wireless networks. Additionally, the minister will be able to make service provider rules, dealing with consumer issues like the handballing of disputes between wholesale and retail providers. Consumers will have clear information on why any reasonable request for connection has been refused and by whom, enabling them to pursue redress with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman or the regulator.

Consumers in regional Australia will benefit from the Regional Broadband Scheme, which establishes an equitable, long-term funding arrangement for NBN Co's fixed and satellite networks. We promised to speed up the rollout and deliver broadband upgrades as soon as possible, and that's exactly what we've done, to deliver fast broadband sooner, at less cost to taxpayers and more affordably for consumers. NBN Co is using the technology best matched to each area of Australia. The government requires NBN Co to ensure upgrade paths are available under its statement of expectations. NBN Co also plans to launch new products and additional features over time in a series of product releases to improve the range of products with which broadband retailers can serve consumers and businesses. By 2020, 90 per cent of premises in the fixed line footprint will be able to access download speeds of 50 megabits per second.

It's instructive to remember Labor's record. Labor promised the world and yet delivered service to just 51,000 premises by September 2013 after six years in government and after spending $6 billion. It was a sorry tale of incompetence and abjectly poor performance. By contrast, under the coalition, the National Broadband Network is over half complete and is extending its reach to towns large and small right across Australia. In September 2013, fewer than three per cent of Australian premises could obtain a service on the network. Today, over half of Australian premises—over 7.6 million homes and businesses—are in ready-for-service areas, and there are more than 3.8 million active users.

The opposition's stated approach of supporting fibre to the premises would have made NBN Co completely uncompetitive. Everyday Australians would have paid more for their internet, and the price of internet bills would have risen by over $500 a year. Reverting to an all-fibre-to-the-premises approach would have seen the NBN completed nationwide six to eight years later than it is being delivered under the Turnbull government and at a cost of an extra $30 billion. The delayed rollout would also have reduced NBN's revenue and made it less competitive. By reducing costs, accelerating the rollout and earning revenue sooner, the government has put the NBN business model on a more sustainable basis and made it more competitive. Under the Turnbull government, NBN's annual revenue has grown from a paltry $17 million in the 2013 financial year to close to $2 billion for the 2018 financial year, and we are on track to have eight million paying customers in 2020.

This package includes a range of measures to improve competition because we know that wholesale market competition will result in better outcomes for consumers and the economy. The Regional Broadband Scheme places NBN Co on an even footing with its competitors by ensuring all carriers, not just NBN Co, play a role in contributing to the cost of delivering broadband in regional and remote Australia. This scheme will require all fixed-line carriers to contribute $7.10 per month for each premises on their network that has an active high-speed fixed-line broadband service. NBN Co will continue to pay around 95 per cent of the total cost, compared to the 100 per cent it pays today.

I want to emphasise that the Regional Broadband Scheme will not result in price rises for the eight million—the 95 per cent of consumers—expected to be connected to NBN by 2020. Consumers using the NBN are already paying for the costs of the fixed wireless and satellite networks, which are built into NBN Co's existing pricing model. In fact, under the Regional Broadband Scheme, high-margin networks supplying to big business and enterprise customers will, for the first time, in many cases, contribute to the cost of regional broadband. It is only fair that these NBN-comparable carriers contribute to Australia's investment in serving the one million Australians who are able to access the fixed wireless and satellite networks and the over 320,000 Australians who are already connected.

The government has included provisions in the Regional Broadband Scheme to help small infrastructure providers, like those servicing greenfields areas, to transition to contributing to the cost of regional broadband. These transition measures include an exemption for the first 25,000 residential and small business premises on their networks for the first five years. They also include implementing a cap so that the monthly charge amount cannot be raised above $10, indexed annually to the consumer price index. They also include a statutory requirement for a policy review within the first four years of the Regional Broadband Scheme to assess its scope as technology and market conditions change.

I do want to comment briefly on the sanctimonious, Uriah Heep-style handwringing amendment from the Labor Party. The suggestion in this amendment that this issue is all due to the coalition is entirely and absolutely wrong and also, frankly, historically ignorant. It was squarely part of the policy approach of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government that the National Broadband Network would be a national network and that profits in metropolitan areas would cross-subsidise loss-making services in regional areas. Of course, the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government failed to deliver the policy framework to achieve that outcome in the face of competing networks being rolled out in metropolitan areas. This bill is yet another example of the Turnbull government having to fix up the chaotic mess we inherited in this policy area.

There is a suggestion in the motion put forward by the shadow minister that the Regional Broadband Scheme imposes a charge per line on fixed line carriers as a consequence of the multi-technology mix introduced by the coalition. That is squarely and factually wrong—wrong, wrong, wrong. It is a design feature of the National Broadband Network as introduced by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government that there would be a cross-subsidy from metropolitan services to regional and remote services.

Of course, a key fact about which Labor is completely silent is that the multi-technology mix will reduce capital costs of the NBN by about $30 billion, in turn reducing the amount of that necessary cross-subsidy. But it is hardly surprising that our innumerate and managerially incompetent political opponents would fail to understand this basic point.

In conclusion, these bills create more opportunities for competition at the network and retail levels, while providing consumers across Australia with confidence that they will have access to the high-speed broadband services they need to participate in today's digital society. These bills have been the subject of extensive consultation. They are strongly supported by consumer groups and regional stakeholders, including the Regional, Rural and Remote Communications Coalition and the National Farmers' Federation. I commend these bills to the House.

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