Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a statement today about the appalling state of the National Broadband Network rollout in parts of my duty electorate of Dickson. This is an issue that I have raised in the Senate before: the mess that the NBN has become and the negative impact it's having on local residents and businesses, particularly small businesses.

It gives me no pleasure to stand in this place and criticise the rollout of the NBN, because rolling it out across Australia was Labor's idea. We had a vision for the NBN—a vision of levelling the playing field between city and country when it comes to technical capabilities; a vision of new opportunities for communities, particularly in rural and remote areas, in health and education; and a vision of increased possibilities for new businesses and for people to have the flexibility and capability to work from home.

But the problem is this: under the Liberal-Nationals NBN rollout, people are going backwards in some areas. I constantly hear stories from residents who tell me that they were getting a better service under ADSL. And I hear from local businesses fed up with the NBN ping-pong, being passed from retail providers to the NBN and back again, with no-one taking responsibility and just fixing the problem. The problems caused because this chaotic, dysfunctional government wanted to save a buck are costing people time and money. Workers are taking time off work to wait for NBN installers who never come. Businesses are forced to turn customers away when their EFTPOS machines go down. And, in far too many places, like Samford in the electorate of Dickson, the internet is working too slowly to keep pace with the demands of our modern-day life. Staff in a regional hardware store told me this month that they get better internet service hotspotting on their phones than on their new NBN plan.

The digital divide, in my opinion, is getting worse and not better. Across the country, while some new estates are getting fibre to the curb, older homes—often in the same neighbourhood—have to settle for inferior fibre to the node and still have to rely heavily on the old copper connections to deliver their services. Only the wealthy can afford to run fibre all the way to the home, because, under the Liberal-Nationals plan, anyone who wants that superior service has to pay for it themselves. People are fed up. Labor is fed up.

The Samford & Districts Progress & Protection Association in Samford are also fed up. With my support and that of federal Labor candidate for Dickson, Ali France, they are now starting to take action. Residents in the Samford Skies estate first raised concerns about the new NBN technologies with the Samford & Districts Progress & Protection Association, Ali France and me earlier this year. At that time, I made representations to NBN Co on their behalf. The association then invited NBN Co to send a representative to give a presentation on the rollout to the community in July 2018, and I thank NBN Co for doing that.

Residents were informed about a variety of the technologies being rolled out from February 2019 through to June 2020. A number of the residents currently using ADSL2 technology are going to receive satellite. This is in a community about 20 kilometres outside of Brisbane—but, in reality, just outside the outskirts of Brisbane. Residents on different sides of the street will be receiving different technologies. There are 1,230 premises to get fixed wireless, with the towers needed to develop this technology polarising the community and yet to be approved by council. It appears the community is split on this particular issue. Residents were very unhappy with NBN Co apparently unable to explain the reasons or the rationale for rolling out different technologies across the one community. The group tell me that they had no response from their federal member, the member for Dickson, which of course is Mr Dutton, to their complaints and pleas for assistance. This I find most galling.

Mr Dutton can find the time to copy Labor's policy on the Linkfield Road overpass—which, by the way, Labor has committed to funding—and is putting up billboards around his electorate and another one in the suburb of Ferny Grove. He can find the time to book the new billboards and to campaign on issues that Labor has committed to, but he can't seem to find time to respond to the local community group on an issue that his government has royally stuffed up. If there were anyone on the other side who might admit that the coalition's rollout is a shambles, you would think it might be Mr Dutton, given that it was his nemesis, Mr Turnbull, who oversaw it. But I digress.

I am pleased to say that the progress association has decided to stand up and fight to make sure that the whole community can receive satisfactory internet services. The group is in the process of starting a petition, one that I am very proud to sponsor, and I look forward to tabling it in this place next year. Throughout December and January the petition will be advertised in the local community newspaper, The Village Pump, through local businesses and local school communities. Ali France and I met with the association president, Mr O'Sullivan, and Samford Skies estate resident Mr Ferguson last Wednesday to talk about the petition, which is quite informative. The draft of it talks about the need for delivering fair and equitable broadband services across Samford Valley districts; the fact that currently the fixed wireless and satellite that are being proposed will deliver unreliable and capacity-constrained fixed wireless and satellite to those currently using ADSL services, which is one of the key complaints from this part of the community; increase the digital divide of unfair and unequal access to broadband—which is something that the community themselves have identified; and reduce access to online educational facilities. It's quite clear that this community has worked out that NBN Co has failed the Samford Valley districts area in fostering productivity and providing a platform for innovation in order to deliver economic and social benefits.

I'm a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network. Last week we released a report which found that regional Australians have copped a raw deal under the coalition's NBN. I want to reiterate our finding that 'the decision to reduce Labor's fibre footprint in order to save a buck has oversubscribed the fixed-wireless network and resulted in poorer outcomes for residents'.

In conclusion, I look forward to further considering the feedback from communities like Samford in my ongoing role on the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network. Most of all, I look forward to the fight to secure a Labor government to implement some changes where NBN is concerned, changes designed to bring the NBN a bit closer to Labor's original vision.