Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just over 12 months ago, the then member for Brisbane, Arch Bevis, proudly announced to the media:

Construction begins in Brisbane’s inner northern suburbs in the second quarter of 2011.

People reasonably assumed that their internet connection problems would be solved. That includes my constituents living in Grange who have contacted me because they have been unable to access or connect with ADSL services. Disappointingly for people eagerly awaiting a solution to their internet access problem, the second release site has been changed to Aspley, an outer northern suburb of Brisbane which just happens to lie in the marginal Labor seats of the members for Petrie and Lilley.

Minister Conroy has favoured Labor's political interests over the national interest at every step of the NBN rollout. Why has the second release site been changed? Residents in my electorate of the CBD and inner northern suburbs deserve an answer—or are they the victims of shameless pork-barrelling? Senator Conroy must explain to these voters in inner north Brisbane why they were misled before the election with promises that they would receive the NBN before July 2011? It now could be many years away. The situation is indicative of the multitude of broken promises that are creating a rising concern among Australians that this government— (Time expired)