Economic and Finance Committee: National Broadband Network

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Odenwalder:

That the 88^th report of the committee, entitled National Broadband Network, be noted.

(Continued from 24 February 2016.)

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:14): I rise to make a contribution here today on the Economic and Finance Committee inquiry into the National Broadband Network. I note from the Presiding Member's introduction, and quite rightly, that the National Broadband Network represents the most significant change to Australia's telecommunications landscape since the creation of the old postmaster-general's department more than a century ago, the old PMG, as you and I would remember it, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don't be so presumptuous! Unbelievable!

Mr TRELOAR: And wasn't the PMG responsible for so much, including not just the daily post of course but ultimately telephones as well. It is certainly a significant change to our communications, and it is an imperative change. It is imperative so that we have the broadband network that not only meets the current demands of this state but also is flexible enough to meet future demands, many of which have yet to be conceived.

That is alluding to the fact that this technology is progressing so quickly, it is moving so quickly. We only have to look at the iPhones that we all carry and use every single day to see how much they have changed in just a few years. We can all remember how excited we were when we got our first mobile phones and they were often—

Mr Pengilly: The old bag phones.

Mr TRELOAR: The former member for Stuart had a bag phone, I know. I remember him at one meeting where I met him early on, and he was underneath the meeting table with his bag phone open, trying to make a phone call—maybe the battery was flat. Soon after that, they were referred to as brick phones.

Members interjecting:

Mr TRELOAR: It was just a phone, yes. I was expecting him to take his shoe off soon after that. The NBN continues to be rolled out, not without its fair share of difficulties, I might add. It does not seem that it is being done with any haste. In 2013, there was a change by the commonwealth government that meant that the existing copper infrastructure will be required to play a critical role in the various components of the multitechnology mix. The federal government has decided to use existing infrastructure to help transmit and transpose this new infrastructure.

I want to talk about a couple of things, first, how this relates to country areas, particularly in regard to the provision of services, government services in particular—health and education. There is no doubt about the increasing role this digital technology is expected to play, will play and is already playing in the delivery of both health and education services. I note that one of the recommendations covers on the benefits of broadband to the health and education sectors.

It was particularly noted that in remote areas of South Australia the benefits were emphasised, from both the teaching and medical practice perspectives. For example, the successful nature of several e-health trials was described for the committee. It was stressed that, in order for e-health programs to be successful, access to reliable, high-speed broadband is paramount.

I am here to tell you today that that has not occurred as yet, and I will give an example. Just three weeks ago, the whole township of Elliston on the West Coast of South Australia in my electorate of Flinders was completely offline for a period of five hours. That is certainly an inconvenience to homes, to businesses and to local government. It is more than that for the local school and the local hospital because, without access to internet technology, which so many of us rely on each and every day, the delivery of their services is highly compromised.

At the Elliston Area School, as is the case at many other area schools right across regional South Australia, some of their lessons are delivered via Open Access. It is particularly the senior school students—years 10, 11 and 12—and these area schools do not have a lot of senior school students, but they have some. Some country kids are completing their schooling in our remote area schools, and they are remote. Elliston is remote, all my towns are remote, but we should not be isolated.

On this particular day, they became isolated. These senior school students are being expected to get the very best marks they can for their year 12 results in a situation where some of their subjects and lessons are delivered via Open Access via the internet, where the internet access and broadband speed is abysmal. It compromises the education that can be offered by this state to our country kids. I really want to make that point. It is something I have felt strongly about for some time.

In regard to health, that five-hour blackout that Elliston underwent some three weeks ago impacted significantly on the hospital as well. They got away with it because there was no emergency at that particular period of time, but had there been a medical emergency in a small country town—and it does not just have to be Elliston; it could be any country town anywhere in South Australia—if they did not have that internet access for whatever reason, it would compromise the ability of that hospital and that health system to deliver the service and may actually compromise the health and wellbeing of a patient or patients.

These are really serious issues and over time I am going to be asking questions of this government. Ultimately, the paramount responsibility of a state government is to provide education and health services. That is our bread and butter. Such things are discussed in this place and it is the responsibility of state governments to deliver those. How is the state government going to work with the federal government of either colour at any time to ensure that our health and education service delivery is adequate in country areas? It is just not at that point yet.

It will mean that state and federal governments have to come to the table on this to strike an agreement about how they best do it. A lot of expectation is being placed on the NBN rollout. My understanding is that where hardwire is not to be delivered—and that is a fair area of country South Australia—the satellite that has been recently launched and is just coming online now is going to provide the NBN's services. The schools and hospitals throughout South Australia will have to have the capacity within themselves to access that satellite and that will come at a cost.

My question to the state government is: how will it help facilitate this service delivery? The people who live in the country areas are not second-class citizens. As I have said before, we are often remote from a big city but we should not feel isolated. We do not deserve to be isolated. We deserve services that are of equal quality to those of our city cousins. These are really serious issues, and I am going to watch carefully how this plays out and how the NBN continues to roll out and how the state government in this budget and incoming budgets actually takes the bit between its teeth to ensure that proper delivery occurs throughout South Australia.

With those few words and the points that I have made, I would like to thank the committee for their work. It is an extensive report. It was tabled on 1 December 2015, so it has taken us six or seven months to get to debating it and probably the situation has changed already because technology is moving quickly. As I said, we look forward to this. In a related discussion, but it will be one for another day, is mobile phone coverage in country areas. These small schools, which I was referring to earlier, often in the absence of satellite and hardwire NBN are using mobile phone towers to access internet and, of course, that in itself limits the internet access they have and it limits the internet speed they have. There is a lot of work to do in this communication space in the next little while.