Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. How is the Albanese Labor government ensuring that more Australian families and businesses can access affordable high-speed internet?

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bennelong for his question and I welcome him back to this place, where I'm sure he will continue to do very good things.

The Albanese government's broadband philosophy is simple: we want it reliable, we want it affordable and we want it fast. These are the essential ingredients to boost productivity, create jobs and foster innovation. High-speed connectivity isn't a nice-to-have in 2025; it is a must-have. The only way to keep delivering quality broadband to more and more Australians is through our investment in the NBN—the publicly owned NBN. At the 2022 election, we committed to fund NBN Co to upgrade an additional 1.5 million homes to fibre to the premises. Those upgrades are on track to be completed by year's end, and this will mean that 90 per cent of the NBN fixed-line footprint will be able to access speeds of up to one gigabit per second.

But there is still more to do, and that's why the government is contributing up to $3 billion for NBN Co to upgrade the final 622,000 premises within the fixed-line footprint from fibre to the node to faster technology. That means ripping up the old coalition copper and replacing it with high-speed, futureproof fibre. The economic benefit of these investments is clear. Having access to faster broadband could save consumers more than a hundred hours of travel time and $2,850 in costs per year. Labor has always envisaged a full-fibre NBN within the fixed-line network, and now we are making that a reality.

Of course, the same cannot be said for those opposite. The coalition opposed the NBN at its inception, calling it a video entertainment system, and then tried to hobble it while in government. Because of those opposite we are still saddled with a large number of fibre-to-the-node connections—the coalition copper—and are spending billions of dollars to undo the opposition's short-sightedness.

Sadly, nothing has changed when it comes to their connectivity policy. This is not a serious opposition. You only need to look at the media statement released by the coalition just last Tuesday, where they couldn't even name the right technology. The coalition media release said the Albanese government committed another $3 billion for the NBN, with a further roll out of fibre to the node, in January. Here's the thing, though: we're getting rid of fibre to the node, the coalition copper. We are ripping it up and we are replacing it with futureproof fibre to the premises. The Australian economy as whole will also benefit from scrapping the coalition copper, with a suggested cumulative GDP uplift of $10.4 billion over the next decade, because the Albanese government is finishing the job of building the publicly owned NBN.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.