Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to address a serious matter about the conduct of Telstra in my electorate of Corangamite. Across Geelong in suburbs like Highton and Marshall and in towns such as Ocean Grove and Torquay, I have received many, many complaints from residents who have little or no access to broadband. In the largest regional city in Victoria some of my constituents are receiving little more than dial-up speeds.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 9:46 to 9:59

As I was saying, I have received many, many complaints from residents who have little or no access to broadband. In the largest regional city in Victoria, some of my constituents are receiving little more than dial-up speeds. For others, there is no ADSL at all. Their only access to the internet is via an expensive wireless dongle.

Across our nation, 1.6 million people suffer poor or no broadband. Labor's NBN has been a disaster. It was uncosted, rolled out at glacial speed and was not even being delivered to Australians who needed it the most. That is what we are doing—prioritising broadband in rural and regional areas. That is why I have been fighting so hard to ensure that some of the worst-affected parts of my electorate are included in our first rollout announcement.

In the meantime, local residents are being overcharged for broadband speeds that Telstra knows it cannot deliver. Mr Will Tang, who lives in Marshall in Geelong, pays a contracted $80 a month for 200 gigabytes of ADSL broadband. However, most of the time, Will receives little more than dial-up speeds. This has been mapped on the government's myBroadband website. Over a month, Will can only download about 40 gigs—less than half of what he pays for. This is compounded by the fact that up until a few weeks ago Telstra wrongly advised on its website: 'Great news: you can get ADSL broadband—that means you can enjoy the faster speeds in your area.' After I suggested to Telstra this conduct may be misleading or deceptive, this message quickly disappeared and the speed suddenly improved.

My office has investigated many similar complaints. When I asked Telstra if it would compensate residents it declined. As a strong local voice for Corangamite, I say this is not good enough, so today I am calling on Telstra to refund customers who have entered into broadband contracts for internet speeds they cannot get. Some who complained have been compensated, but all of Telstra's customers deserve the same treatment.

Then there is the case of Julia Keady. Before she bought a house in Ocean Grove she entered the address of the property on Telstra's website and was advised that ADSL was available. When she went to install her service, she was told there were no more ports at the local exchange. This is happening everywhere.

I do note that Telstra's investment in its network has waned because Labor promised the NBN seven years ago, but Telstra is prohibited as a matter of law from misleading or deceiving its customers. Telstra should not be telling prospective customers it can deliver when it cannot and it should not be charging for a service or selling a product when it knows it cannot provide.