Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Gichuhi for her question. Building a next-generation national communications network in a country the size of Australia is a massive venture, due to its engineering and logistical complexity. Despite that. the NBN has powered ahead. In terms of connections, what it took NBN a full year to do in 2014 now takes a bit over six weeks, and I'm very pleased to advise Senator Gichuhi that in her home state of South Australia the rollout is now 66 per cent complete and that 273,000 South Australian homes and businesses have an active connection to the network.

At the heart of that success is a massive army of subcontractors. There are now more than 30,000 workers across the country who have been accredited by NBN to build and maintain the network, including more than 2,500 in South Australia alone. NBN estimates that there are around 3,600 mum-and-dad subcontracting businesses working right now on the NBN, and more than 200 of those small businesses are based in South Australia. The project's field workforce has been skilling up and working hard to build and switch on services in more than 1,500 suburbs, towns and cities right across the country.

In addition, NBN's internal workforce now stands at more than 6,000. Significantly for our farmers and rural communities, the network has already reached many parts of Australia that were traditionally at the back of the queue when it came to telecommunications. Close to 80 per cent of regional Australia now has access to superfast broadband and well over half the nation overall. So there have been great strides across South Australia, from Mount Gambier to Coober Pedy to Port Lincoln.