Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For many months now, my electorate office has been contacted by residents living in Baldivis and Port Kennedy—in particular, the Long Beach Estate and Kennedy Bay. It is a beautiful community—some would say idyllic—near a beautiful coastline and some of the best beaches in Australia. But not only that: being only 40 minutes south of the CBD, in the city of Rockingham, these residents also benefit from the conveniences of modern metropolitan living—that is, apart from the convenience of modern and accessible telecommunications. You see, unfortunately for the residents living, working and studying in these communities, there are no ports available to connect them to the local exchange. The internet infrastructure is abysmal. This means slow internet speeds, connection dropouts or non-existent internet connections. And there is no end in sight. The NBN is not expected to be in Port Kennedy until at least the second half of 2018.

This government's farcical rollout of the NBN is so abysmal it is making international headlines. The New York Times, no less, has documented in all its ineptitude the Turnbull Liberal government's diabolical bungling of the rollout of high-speed internet in this country. It is what this country wants, and needs, to be competitive on the international stage. Instead, all we get are international headlines, embarrassingly, because we lag in an essential area of modern life and commerce—high internet speeds. I call on this government to do its job—or at very least try. Have a go at delivering a working NBN. (Time expired)