COALITION MP AGREES TURNBULL NBN FAILING REGIONAL AUSTRALIA

Coalition Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad MP, has split with Malcolm Turnbull and declared the NBN is failing regional Australia.

 

The Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network - of which Mr Broad is a member – has released a damning report into the Turnbull Government’s NBN after more than 12 months of consultation with industry, business and local residents.

 

The response from the community has been crystal clear. The NBN rollout is failing local businesses and residents, particularly in regional towns.

 

The Joint Committee issued a detailed plan to address what it found were systemic issues of faults, failed connections, reliability and chronic speed issues occurring across the network.

 

Coalition MP Andrew Broad accepts that the Government has got many aspects of the NBN rollout wrong and that they need to act to address the very real issues being felt in regional communities.

 

Billions have being spent but many customers told the committee their service had gone backwards. That’s simply not good enough.

 

Many of the issues raised were entirely predictable given the flawed copper technology choices and the disinterest shown by the Turnbull Government in addressing the poor lived-experience of consumers.

 

The Minister for Regional Communications, Senator Fiona Nash, cannot continue to ignore this crisis.

 

The Government now has 23 serious recommendations to improve customer service, technology and transparency.

 

Constituents in Mr Broad’s electorate of Mallee are expressing the same frustration as in every other regional MPs office.

 

They are fed up. They want answers and they want solutions.

 

It’s high time the Turnbull Government acts to address this NBN crisis.

 

Australia can’t afford to keep spending billions on an NBN that is not delivering.