Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The NBN rollout under this government has been an absolute debacle. I would like to take a few minutes to share with the House, as I have done previously, what is going on in central Victoria, and in Bendigo in particular. Day after day, month after month, I have people contacting my office with their latest complaint about the debacle that is this rollout.

Unfortunately for Bendigo we have ended up with fibre-to-the-node technology—19th century fibre-to-the-node technology—which relies upon the copper network. We have had people, depending on the distance they live from the node, being stuck with slow internet services. We have had people contact our office who have had their complete internet disconnected for weeks and sometimes months on end waiting for NBN to come out to connect them. In a recent editorial, the Bendigo Advertiser said:

If not for the ousting of the federal Labor government at the 2013 election, Bendigo would be receiving the vastly superior fibre-to-the-premises—

just like Ballarat and Shepparton. That is our own paper acknowledging that Labor had a better plan.

What we found out this week, and I do welcome this decision, is that the government has acknowledged that there is a real problem with Bendigo and the current infrastructure—the copper and the pairing system—that we have. I welcome the announcement they made that the suburbs of Epsom and Eaglehawk will receive fibre to the curb. It is not fibre to the premises, but it is slightly better than fibre to the node. That is good news for Eaglehawk and Epsom. However, they are only two suburbs of Bendigo. What about Maiden Gully? What about areas of Huntly? What about areas of Big Hill and Kangaroo Flat? What about the rest of Bendigo? They will still be stuck on fibre to the node. What about historic towns like Maldon? Why would the historic town of Maldon, with its preserved streetscape, not also get fibre to the curb? If we know this technology is good, if we know this technology is far superior and better than fibre to the node then drop the ideological obsession, drop the ego and roll out fibre to the curb to the rest of Bendigo and central Victoria.

I urge the government: what Eaglehawk gets, allow others in our area to get. There is a real problem with the node. It relies on outdated copper, 19th century copper. We need to improve our telecommunications in Bendigo and central Victoria. I urge the government to roll out fibre to the premises or fibre to the curb everywhere.