National Broadband Network

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:14): I rise today to talk about a key concern for constituents in my electorate of Ramsay, and that is the state of the National Broadband Network. The NBN will remain as one of the most embarrassing legacies of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison federal Liberal governments. I am certain that every electorate office in the nation, regardless of political persuasion, could provide numerous examples of households, businesses, schools and even government agencies and departments that have suffered from the shambolic mess that is currently the NBN.

Six years of flawed technology choices have created a delivery disaster for Australians. The Liberal's underperforming fibre-to-the-node version of a multitechnology mix model had experts from across the industry warning from the outset that this would be expensive, inequitable, inefficient and unsustainable in the long term. There is little doubt that the Labour Party's original vision 12 years ago for fast, reliable and affordable broadband for all Australians has been botched by the federal Liberal government.

Laurie Patton, former CEO of Internet Australia, the peak not-for-profit consumer body representing internet users in Australia, described the current system as a dud and noted that in the event that the Coalition retained office, 'It would be well advised to adopt Labor's plan.' Ranked 62^nd in a recent global ranking of broadband speeds, Australia currently languishes behind developing countries, including Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Barbados. The ABS estimates that there are still up to 1.3 million Australians without any broadband access at all, and 183,000 premises of the fibre-to-the-node network are currently unable to achieve minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second, a number that is likely to grow to more than 230,000 as the NBN rollout nears completion.

The ACCC, ACMA and the Productivity Commission have also contributed to the discussion and, in summary, concluded that Australia needs better broadband. Dealing with the greatest infrastructure bungle in Australian history is not going to be quick, simple or inexpensive. Adopting fibre-to-the-node was a foreseeable error given the known state of Telstra's ageing copper wires, and experts agree that any copper lines used in the NBN rollout will eventually need to be replaced by fibre-optic cables.

What is lacking is a comprehensive policy to assess the damage, improve quality, affordability and accessibility, and futureproof our infrastructure. Some of the areas that Labor has previously highlighted that need to be urgently addressed are:

a digital inclusion drive to get more elderly and low income households connected, making our country more modern and inclusive;

improving speeds and reliability for fibre-to-the-node households by fixing in-home cabling problems that degrade service quality for households on the copper NBN; and

the establishment of an NBN service guarantee to set service standards for fault repair and installations. This will better safeguard small businesses and consumers against unreasonable and excessive periods of NBN downtime, providing economic benefits to businesses across the country.

An article in the Financial Review noted that Telstra's chief of networks and IT said that rapidly developing video streaming technology and the endless consumer demand for video streaming meant that only fibre-optic technology to the premises would reliably support the demand going forward.

An example of how our homes and demands are changing is our televisions. When the first large-screen TVs came out everybody had standard definition video, 1.5 megabits per second. However, as the screens got bigger, standard definition looked more and more ugly and was superseded by high definition, a video stream that can use between three megabits and eight megabits per second. Just switching one household television from standard definition to high definition increases internet consumption three times. The emergence of ultra definition TV, or 4K, requires up to five times the speeds of high definition.

This does not factor in multiple uses such as kids streaming while you are watching TV and doing something on your laptop. As technology advances, we are all going to require greater capacity in our internet speed. We need a solid, well advised and supported plan to get Australia's internet out of the technological abyss in which it currently resides.