Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today we have heard about another saga with regard to the NBN rollout, which that side of the chamber know as the multi-technology mix and this side of the chamber obviously know as Malcolm Turnbull's mess or even the multi-technology mess. I've said in a number of speeches in this place, over quite a number of years, that, given the increasing demand of Australian businesses and households for fast broadband, Mr Turnbull's second-rate copper national broadband network will largely be redundant by the time it's built. Now, with the emergence of 5G mobile services, we face the prospect of more homes and businesses abandoning the network in favour of mobile-only services.

The 5G providers like Telstra and Optus know what consumers need and want, and they're willing to provide it. A study by Venture Insights, co-funded by the ACCC, reports that as many as 30 per cent of households could abandon the NBN and switch to wireless—30 per cent. Yet NBN's corporate plan continues to cling to the assumption that only 15 per cent of users on the inferior multi-technology mix network would abandon the NBN for wireless services. NBN Co's recent announcement about 5G technology is obviously an admission that the second-rate copper network has failed. The MTM rollout has been a disaster from the beginning. The cost of the rollout has increased from $29.5 billion to $49 billion—a $20 billion blowout—including a recent potential $450 million blowout to the cost of the troubled HFC network.

But the problems with the government's second-rate network don't end there. Oh, no! The copper based network costs more to maintain over its lifetime, yet it generates less revenue because it cannot reach the high speeds that consumers are willing to pay for. It's a less reliable service with slower speeds. In some cases, users who have purchased a copper NBN service have ended up with a slower and less reliable service than their previous ADSL plans. Senator O'Neill mentioned concerns of people in New South Wales. Well, in Tassie, let me tell you—and Senator Brown, I am sure, will attest to this—there are areas in Tasmania which are 20 minutes from the city centre—Hobart—that the NBN left off the map to start with. When we had consultations, it took them months and months and months to be able to get these people any form of access to the network. There are other areas in Tassie that I know have been left off the map altogether. Tasmanians, I think, are really underwhelmed with the government's approach to the NBN.

As I said, the copper network costs more to maintain over its lifetime, yet it generates less revenue because it cannot reach the highest speeds that consumers are willing to pay for. It's a less reliable service and it's much, much slower. In some cases, the economics of copper are nothing short of a liability. It's no wonder that consumer complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman have gone through the roof. Demand for broadband speeds are such that it's inevitable that most Australians will soon require and demand a full fibre network. But the rollout of the copper network means that the pathway to the fibre network will be expensive and wasteful—an expense that could have been avoided under Labor's plans.

So we see lots of dissatisfaction with Mr Turnbull's second-rate NBN reflected in a number of surveys. Let me put some facts on the table to refute some of the things that Senator Abetz stated. According to Recon, 83 per cent of small businesses lack confidence in the delivery of the network—83 per cent—and 54 per cent of small businesses believe they will be left behind as the digital economy develops, with technology infrastructure identified as a key barrier to starting a new business. According to the New South Wales Business Chamber, 43 per cent of businesses are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the NBN—43 per cent. So we've already wasted enough money and opportunity on the farce that is the MTM. The longer we take to commit to Labor's plan for a full fibre rollout to 93 per cent of premises, the more we risk being left behind in the global economy.

I just want to point out that Rebecca White, the Labor leader in my home state of Tasmania, understands this. That's why Tasmanian Labor has committed to working across all levels of government and the private sector to facilitate the rollout of fibre-to-the-premises across northern Tasmania. (Time expired)