QUEENSLANDERS LEFT BEHIND UNDER TURNBULL’S NBN

While regional businesses and households are desperate for improved broadband services, Malcolm Turnbull has left regional Queenslanders with a growing digital divide.

Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, Stephen Jones MP, met with Queensland’s Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, the Hon Mark Furner MP, to discuss the Turnbull Government’s failed NBN policies and its impact on rural and regional Queenslanders.

Under Turnbull’s second-rate NBN, Queenslanders will be stranded with an inferior service as NBN figures reveal three out of every four copper-NBN users will not be able to reach the maximum advertised speed of 100Mbps.

From the onset, the Liberal Nationals have put Queenslanders, particularly in regional and rural areas, at the bottom of the pile.  And they are still in denial.

More than any other State, Queensland has a widely dispersed and decentralised population.  For that reason, fast and reliable broadband is imperative to Queensland’s future growth and economic prosperity.

Turnbull cannot hide from the fact that:

40 per cent of households across Queensland will receive second-rate copper-NBN

75 per cent of copper-NBN households will not be able to achieve the maximum advertised speed of 100Mbps

One in three new NBN connections fail due to technical issues with more than 10 per cent of those households still without a working phone or internet service after a month.

Thanks to the decisions Malcolm Turnbull made as Communications Minister; the digital divide will only grow particularly between those who receive copper-NBN and those who will receive fibre.

Under Labor, 97 per cent of premises across Australia would had received high-speed broadband because Labor recognises Australians deserve a real broadband network that delivers the speeds and reliability they need for their business, education and a truly digitally-enabled society. 

If Malcolm Turnbull wants to be taken seriously and start to improve his position then his Government should immediately direct NBN to complete all of the remaining rollout using fibre and put an end to the NBN postcode lottery faced by residents and business, alike.