The NBN rollout for homes and businesses across our community is in crisis.
On Tuesday 19 September local Federal Member for Brand Madeleine King MP will hold a special NBN crisis meeting with Shadow Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland MP at the Salvation Army Hall on Fifty Road in Baldivis from 6:00pm.
The crisis meeting will be held for local residents to voice their concerns about how the Turnbull Government’s failed NBN rollout has affected them.
At the 2013 election, Malcolm Turnbull promised he would deliver his inferior version of the NBN faster and cheaper with three key commitments:
- Minimum download speeds of 25 megabits per second to all Australians by the end of 2016. FAIL
- Delivery of the NBN for $29.5 billion. FAIL
- A commitment that areas most under-served by existing telecommunications infrastructure would be prioritised in the rollout. FAIL
Ms King said this was simply unacceptable.
“Every day people tell me how fed up and frustrated they are with Malcolm Turnbull’s second rate NBN” Ms King said.
“My office hears from local residents and business owners who have connection drop outs, slow speeds or simply no access at all.
“The rollout of the NBN has now reached crisis point for local homes and businesses who were promised so much more”.
The latest available information from the Government shows that less than half of homes in our electorate have an available NBN connection.
This is a far cry from Malcolm Turnbull’s promise that all Australians would have access by the end of 2016.
Some local residents have no scheduled construction date or face wait times of over two years for construction to be complete in 2019.
Shadow Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland MP said it was all too common to hear about people experiencing problems with the NBN.
“‘Right across the country we are seeing local residents facing poor service under Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN mess, both during installation and after connecting to the NBN.”
Whilst Australians were promised superfast broadband speeds, the reality is that The Turnbull Government has only delivered average connection speeds of just 11.1Mbps to-date.
That dismal result means Australia has the embarrassing global rank of 50th for internet speeds behind key trading partners South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the United States and New Zealand.
Ms King said concerns about the NBN was one of the top issues raised by residents throughout the community.
“It is absolutely critical that homes and businesses have access to a reliable NBN connection but this just simply isn’t possible for many,” Ms King said.
“This is not just about watching Netflix, it is about school students and businesses who depend on a reliable internet connection”.
Further to this, Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN rollout has become an international embarrassment.
A New York Times article on 11 May stated that “The internet modernisation plan has been hobbled by cost overruns, partisan manoeuvring and a major technical compromise that put 19th-century technology between the country’s 21st-century digital backbone and many of its homes and businesses.”
Residents are invited to register their interest to attend the NBN Crisis Meeting at the Salvation Army Hall, 13 Fifty Road Baldivis on Tuesday 19 September by emailing [email protected] with their contact details or calling 9527 9377.
