Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as my electorate of Newcastle is split by a digital divide of haves and have-nots. This morning, rollout maps released by NBN Co confirmed that build preparation for fixed line NBN has commenced for large parts of Newcastle, including the CBD, with an estimated 47,000 premises having access if they can afford the cost of connection to the node.

This of course is a rollout of the Minister for Communications' less reliable, slower, second-rate, fibre-to-the-node pilot NBN program. While I note that access to a broadband network of sorts is welcomed by some, questions remain for large parts of my electorate, some areas of which have no access to broadband whatsoever. That's right; in 2014 some residents and businesses in Newcastle—the second-largest city in New South Wales and the seventh-largest city in Australia—do not have access to reliable broadband through any service provider. And today's announcement brings them no comfort or answers.

I particularly note the suburb of Thornton. Residents of Thornton have contacted me on numerous occasions to indicate they have no access to a broadband service at all. The Minister for Communications' own department confirmed in their audit that parts of the suburb have the worst possible access level to some of the poorest quality ADSL broadband in the country. I ask the minister again, as I have done in writing on numerous occasions: when will residents and businesses in Thornton have access to broadband—your second-rate network or otherwise?