"Labor will fix this mess. We understand the need for world-class digital infrastructure in the post-COVID economy for schools, small business, regional communities and growing industries such as advanced manufacturing. Labor's plan to boost fibre and fast-track NBN repair will deliver and it will create 12,000 construction jobs along the way."

Address to the House of Representatives

Tuesday 23 November 2021

At the start of the year my local Labor colleagues and I wrote to the minister for communications calling for improved NBN infrastructure in the nation's capital.

Canberra's NBN infrastructure is undoubtedly the worst of all the capital cities. The network is comprised of more than 70 per cent fibre to the node, higher than other major urban centres around the nation. It's inferior to fibre to the premises or to the kerb and it doesn't deliver the performance that a modern broadband network should.

Canberrans are not the only ones who are frustrated. Australia has slipped to 59th in the world on broadband speeds and ranks 32nd out of 37 OECD nations. This is not good enough. It's a drag on our economy, it has undermined the competitiveness of small business and it has left sectors like health and education reliant on patchy, outdated technology.

Furthermore, this government promised to deliver the NBN for $29.5 billion. Their patchwork of second-rate technologies has cost nearly double this amount.

We have a second-rate network that has cost twice as much as promised, a clear demonstration of the government's technological and economic incompetence.

Labor will fix this mess. We understand the need for world-class digital infrastructure in the post-COVID economy for schools, small business, regional communities and growing industries such as advanced manufacturing. Labor's plan to boost fibre and fast-track NBN repair will deliver and it will create 12,000 construction jobs along the way.