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

I rise to talk about the utter travesty that is the Turnbull government's pathetic second-rate NBN. Before the 2013 election, now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised he would deliver minimum download speeds of 25 megabits per second to all Australians by the end of 2016. And yet, here we are halfway through 2017 and average connection speeds are just 11.1 megabits per second, and millions of Australians are still waiting to be connected.

Australia now ranks 50th in global internet speed rankings. This puts us behind countries like Bulgaria, Ireland, Kenya and New Zealand. This weekend, we learned from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman that NBN users are five times more likely to complain about their broadband than other internet users. This news came as no surprise to me, as my office is constantly fielding calls from constituents who simply are not getting the service they paid for. I am particularly concerned about the impact this is having on our local businesses. Everywhere I go and speak to local businesses and telecommuters, they tell me that the Prime Minister's second-rate NBN is holding them back. One local business owner rang me when her business was threatened because the transition to NBN resulted in her losing not just her internet connection but her longstanding phone number. Another desperate constituent contacted me because she feared her completely unreliable NBN connection and the constant telco buck-passing could cost her her job and home business, which obviously requires a fast and reliable internet connection at her home. And more businesses than I can count tell me that their NBN speeds are just not fast enough.

Fast, reliable and affordable broadband is a fundamental ingredient for the productivity and profitability of Australian businesses. Labor's real NBN would have been the single greatest enabler of productivity, jobs and growth in decades. Instead, the Liberals' inferior offering, built on last century's copper, is shackling Australian businesses and holding our economy back. It is time the government fixed the mess they have created so that we are not destined to be left behind the rest of the world, rendered completely uncompetitive in the global economy. Small businesses deserve much better from this government. The offering of a fast, affordable and reliable NBN was a game changer for our nation's economy. It just has never been delivered by the government. We have a Prime Minister whose single responsibility in his last portfolio was this job. He needs to do it now.