Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the past 18 months I have been fighting really, really hard to get Canberra on the NBN rollout map. Just three months ago—hurrah!—we finally got on the NBN rollout map. Now I'm concerned that it's a case of 'be careful what you wish for'. I'm very concerned about the fact that this government has created a digital divide right across Australia. We've got a digital divide already here in Canberra, between the north and the south of Canberra. I'm concerned that because of our late entry and because this government rolled out the NBN and prioritised the NBN in the wrong spot, a spot where we already had TransACT, the people of Canberra have been left behind and, as a result, are going to get a second-rate NBN.

My colleague the member for Lalor was talking about the lived experience. Here's one lived experience: the individuals and hardworking community groups of Gleneagles are trying to get their NBN service upgraded from fibre to the node to fibre to the premises. That comes at a very hefty price. These residents have been asking NBN to design an upgrade for them for at least three years. They handed over an initial $2,200 and got a quick estimate that an area switch would cost the community between $900,000 and $2 million. That's a big gap—$1.1 million. That's how appalling is this government's NBN rollout. (Time expired)