Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to draw the attention of the House to the experience of my residents on Lord Howe Island, a tiny, beautiful little green speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that sadly has a very poor, very slow, very expensive internet connection, with people paying as much as $190 a month for that connection. The prices are high and the service is slow and unreliable. Sadly, that is particularly important for a community that relies almost entirely on tourism for its income. It is barely enough for small emails and it makes web browsing impossible. It is not just a limitation on the residents' ability to engage with the online world; it affects the hospital's ability to send email medical reports and related documents to hospitals in Port Macquarie and Sydney. It has a negative impact on the quality of continuity of care for Lord Howe Island residents and visitors with medical problems. It damages the local community, with business operators unable to rely on online bookings, email inquiries or online banking. You can imagine how serious an issue that is.

The sad thing, of course, is that this situation was avoidable. In 2013, under the then Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, NBN Co started a technical trial of the Interim Satellite Service. The trial was very successful. Unfortunately, the current government and NBN Co turned off the trial sites in November 2013. People are relegated to having a second-class internet once again.

Lord Howe Island will eventually be served by NBN Co's long-term satellite service but, given the delays to the NBN, this will not happen before July next year – a year behind schedule. In fact, the budget confirmed that the NBN rollout is proceeding even more slowly than promised. The budget confirmed that half a billion dollars worth of funding has been pushed out into future years because the government's second-rate NBN rollout is going so slowly. Residents on Lord Howe Island want to have the three test sites that were previously installed under the Interim Satellite Service restored. They want those test sites turned back on so they might have a better internet connection until the long-term satellite service is up and running.

Other areas in Australia are taking part in trials to improve their internet access. Lord Howe Island is one of the areas most in need, and residents very strongly feel that they have been let down. The government and NBC Co have a responsibility to the residents of Lord Howe Island. They ought to fulfil that responsibility by providing a decent, affordable, high quality, high speed internet service so that people might make the living that they rely on for tourism and so services such as health and education are able to be fully available to the residents of Lord Howe Island.