Tasmanian NBN committee hearings

Tasmanians are suffering from poor broadband that is slower and less reliable than they expected, and want better communication with the NBN and ISPs.

These are some of the key take outs of evidence presented this week to three days of Tasmanian hearings of the federal parliament’s powerful Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network.

“Businesses in particular have expressed deep disappointment that the NBN is failing to deliver,” said Lyons federal Labor MP Brian Mitchell, a member of the committee.

“The downgrading of the rollout from optic fibre to copper has resulted in all sorts of problems, including service drop outs, slow speed and long delays in connections.

“Unfortunately the digital divide between cities and regions is widening, making it more difficult for regions to attract people and business investment.”

Mr Mitchell said Liberal members of the committee were talking up the number of
properties being passed.

“That’s like boasting about laying a highway faster than before, even though the new bit is full of potholes and needs repairs before it’s even finished,” Mr Mitchell said.

At the Launceston hearing, award-winning software developer Darren Alexander testified that the current rollout would see Australia’s internet ranking drop from 50 to 100 “in one or two years”.

Mr Mitchell said it was clear regional Tasmanians were being shortchanged by the current rollout.

“The NBN is arguably the single most important infrastructure project in the nation’s recent history and could have set the country up for the 21st century, but it has been completely bungled by the Liberals.”

The NBN committee next travels to NSW and later this year will prepare a report to the federal parliament.
BRIAN MITCHELL MP FEDERAL LABOR MEMBER FOR LYONS