Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards and Other Measures) Bill 2023. I make the point that the National Broadband Network is critical infrastructure in regional Australia. It connects people, it connects communities and it connects businesses.

Many people will know that the electorate of Nicholls is one of the food bowls, if not the food bowl, of Australia, and agriculture is incredibly important to our region and our economy. The NBN and a reliable internet connection have become a critical element of operating modern, productive and profitable agricultural businesses, whether it be the links between agricultural machinery in the field, like tractors, headers or other machinery that have internet links to GPS or other outside pieces of technology; whether it be access to the Bureau of Meteorology data which helps farmers make decisions; or whether it be, as it was in an occupation I had before coming to this place, using the internet to link together irrigation networks—both networks on farm, where an internet connection can inform farmers of what's happening in relation to soil moisture levels, water and the status of irrigation events, and broader networks. That's a key part of the Goulburn Valley Water and Goulburn-Murray Water connected system. That helps with water efficiency, in that broadband internet networks can talk to each other and can inform Goulburn-Murray Water headquarters when to fill channels because irrigators might need to use that water. Doing that in more of a real-time sense means we have much better water efficiency. A lot of that great technological work and enhancement of the broadband network that led to that being able to be done happened under the previous coalition government.

It's also in terms of manufacturing and service industries. Reliable broadband internet connectivity is critical for emergency service workers to be able to communicate with each other and see what's happening both with weather and with emergency events. In relation to that in particular, I want to make special mention of some of the things that are going on in Victoria at the moment. There are some serious bushfire threats, mostly, as I understand it, in the electorates of Mallee and Wannon, and my thoughts are with those people and the members for those two electorates because they're very concerned at the moment about the bushfires that are happening. A lot of people are also without power in Victoria at the moment as a result of the failure of the network. On the ground in those electorates—in Wannon and Mallee in particular—I'm sure that the enhanced internet access is helping the firefighters and emergency services deal with those problems.

When I was campaigning for the 2022 election, in which I was elected to this place, there was some funding that was committed to enhancing the resilience of some of those broadband networks and the towers, and that has certainly helped in relation to the flooding that occurred in my electorate and also in relation to the fires. That's something that successive governments need to keep doing. They need to look at how we can make sure people have reliable internet not only in the good times but also when they are suffering from some threats.

As at 1 November 2023, the electorate of Nicholls has around 84,000 premises ready connect to the NBN, with 71 per cent served by one of a number of fixed-line technologies, which may include fibre to the basement, fibre to the node, fibre to the curb, hybrid fibre coaxial and fibre to the premises. There are approximately 11,000 premises that are fibre to the node within Nicholls that may be able to access fibre to the premises and an additional 9,700 fibre-to-the-node premises scheduled for an upgrade in the future. Over 6,000 of those are currently under construction. These upgrades have taken place in some of the smaller areas in my electorate, including Cobram, Echuca, Kialla, Kyabram, Nagambie, Numurkah, Rochester, Seymour—which has suffered from some flooding in recent times—Tatura and Yarrawonga, and an upgrade in Broadford is expected to be completed later this year. It's a continuing effort to make sure the latest technology gets, in particular, to the regional areas. This demonstrates that the NBN is not static infrastructure; it is being improved, expanded to more regional towns and growing constantly with new development.

This bill looks to provide a refresh to a system that was introduced by the coalition government, setting out rules for the connection and supply of internet and voice services. It appears to be largely an uncontroversial bill and it will be supported, but there are some issues that we have uncovered that we want to highlight. Firstly, the bill was promised by the minister to be in the House at the end of 2022. That's 2022, not 2023, and here we are now. If there had been comprehensive industry engagement that wound up satisfying or resolving concerns that had been raised, you could understand this delay, but, as is often the case with the Albanese government, unfortunately, there was no such consultation. Even after this delay, the feedback we've got is that the minister did not listen to many industry concerns and failed to properly engage with them.

This bill primarily makes a number of changes to the operation and enforcement of what is known as the statutory infrastructure provider, or the SIP regime. The regime sets rules related to the connection and supply of internet and voice services across Australia and was introduced by the coalition government in July 2020, acting essentially as a universal broadband service guarantee. In the history of telecommunications in Australia, universal service guarantees have played an important part in ensuring that regional and remote Australians such as the people in my electorate of Nicholls have access to quality services. SIPs are carriers that must provide basic wholesale broadband services in the areas they service. The NBN is the default SIP for the vast majority of Australian premises, but other carriers that have installed network infrastructure to connect premises in areas such as new real estate developments, shopping centres or apartments may also be deemed to be SIPs. There are 32 registered SIPs in Australia, covering areas large and small.

The SIPs have obligations under the Telecommunications Act 1997 to connect premises in their service areas to their networks. These obligations include ensuring wholesale services are made available to retailers to provide connections for consumers, including setting minimum broadband speeds. In February 2021 the then minister for communications announced plans to engage industry stakeholders on new standards, rules and benchmarks for SIP networks. This government continued that process, and, in late August 2022, the Minister for Communications announced a new round of public consultation on the laws and invited submissions on a draft bill. The submissions were to close, after a relatively short period, in late September 2022, and the bill was supposed to be before the parliament by the end of 2022. But the bill was finally introduced in the House in the very last sitting week of 2023. Maybe the government were a bit distracted during 2023—I'm not sure. So, a year late, here we are.

The explanatory memorandum makes it clear that, while there was general support for the provisions of the draft bill, concerns raised during the consultation process resulted in amendments and further consultation on changes to the draft bill. Stakeholders—some in my electorate—may have felt that they have been ignored and their concerns about the disclosure provisions haven't been listened to properly. But the coalition generally supports this bill because it provides a range of technical updates to tweak the system which the coalition introduced. Such tweaks are of course normal and expected in such a fast-changing telecommunications environment, where technology is evolving at a very fast pace.

As I explained earlier, digital connectivity and new technologies are very important, especially in regional Australia. This parliament has a responsibility—the coalition did it, and I'm pleased that this government is continuing on with that work—to make sure that that digital connectivity is available to all, not just the easy stuff, which is so often the way. The easy stuff is where the big populations are and you need fewer assets for a higher density of people, so that gets done, and then, where there are low density populations, that gets pushed out or doesn't happen at all.

The coalition will be watching carefully to see what the Senate inquiry comes up with. We've reserved our right to consider amendments recommended by that committee, but we're broadly supportive and we encourage the government to continue to be committed to providing the latest technology and broadband access to those in regional Australian. People in metropolitan areas benefit from that, even though they may not know it. People sitting in some of the metropolitan seats in Melbourne and Sydney are interested in what their broadband speeds are in their own houses or in their own businesses. But, as is so often the case—and we in the National Party are here to explain that and advocate for that across this parliament—what happens in regional Australia affects you in the metropolitan areas. That's because so many of our resources—whether they be in agriculture or mining or a range of other industries—depend on the viability and productivity of regional Australia. It's important that all legislation looks out to the regions as well as the metropolitan areas.

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