Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, I take the opportunity to update the House on the NBN rollout in my electorate of O'Connor. It is timely to do so because we are now starting to see all three of the technologies starting to be rolled out, and that includes fix line, fixed wireless and of course the satellite technology. Poor internet and mobile phone coverage is an issue that is raised with me almost every time I have a group of constituents come together in my electorate. I feel their pain. I do not want to be a martyr, but certainly in my home town where I live I get very poor mobile phone reception. I also rely on wireless internet, which is intermittent, expensive and very slow. So I certainly understand the problems that people bring to me.

As the technology that we deal with on a daily basis has improved and grown, I am seeing farmers using GPS technology that they can link back to their farm offices. I also see small businesses that need EFTPOS facilities—many of which might be in remote areas; for example, tourism operators who need to operate EFTPOS machines and also need to offer their customers the ability to communicate when they are at their resorts. Of course, it is a big disadvantage when businesspeople and others cannot make contact with the outside world when they are visiting some of the beautiful places in my electorate.

The other day I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting North Albany Senior High School. I saw some lessons being conducted in Albany by the history teacher and they were being joined by students in Mount Barker in Katanning, up the road in my home town. It is great technology but, at the speeds they were using, the vision was a bit grainy in the sound was a little bit distorted. So I am really looking forward to being able to offer those people in my electorate much higher internet quality.

I guess it is timely to talk about Minister Malcolm Turnbull's efforts to get the NBN Co up and running and rolling out the NBN in electorates. I have to commend the minister for the work he has done and commend the NBN Co for the improvements they have made very recently. On 31 March 2015, we had the first announcement of fixed-line NBN in the towns of Esperance, Katanning, Manjimup, Hopetoun and Denmark. It is great news for O'Connor, particularly in the case of Denmark where we are going to see the first town that will have complete coverage of all three services: the fixed-wireless towers in Denmark, which are due to be switched on in June, will be up and running for the first 800 residences; the fixed line, which will enter the CBD part of the town, will be up and running in around 18 months; and the satellite service, which is available at the moment but with very slow speeds and very poor service. The satellite service will be a very important part of those three technologies for my electorate. When the new satellites are launched late this year and come into service early next year, that will provide much better coverage for all the remote parts of my electorate. I know that there are many, many people, particularly in the more remote parts, that are very much looking forward to receiving that service.

I will go back to Denmark, because Denmark is a really illustrative town of the government's and the NBN Co's new policy of directing the service to where it is most needed. Denmark is a beautiful coastal town, which is very undulating with lots of 300 feet high kauri trees with a very dense canopy. At the moment, mobile phone access is very poor. Some people cannot even get free-to-air TV service. It is a great example of targeting the areas of greatest need. I am very much looking forward to seeing that rolled out, so that people—particularly those in the tourist industry, where they are not getting adequate service at the moment—will have access to those services and they can run their EFTPOS machines and provide their clients access to communications to the outside world, and more and more people can come to a beautiful part of the world and enjoy it.

The other day the Chamber of Commerce in Denmark hosted an event where 60 people came along. The event was attended by Peter Gurney, the corporate relations manager for the NBN in WA. People were able to put their questions, and all of those questions were answered very much to the satisfaction of the people in Denmark. I know that they are all looking forward to having that full service in the next 18 months. I commend the NBN Co and particularly Minister Turnbull for the efforts that he has made to make that happen.