Interview with Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan on ABC Brisbane

LORETTA RYAN, HOST: Talking about your NBN speeds with Federal Communications Minister in a tick, but Nelson's called up. Nelson, where are you calling from?

NELSON, LISTENER: Good morning, I'm from [indistinct].

RYAN: And what's internet speed like where you are?

NELSON: Well, in my area we mostly get wireless broadband or fixed-wireless broadband through the NBN service so it's a tower similar to a mobile-tower service, and the best, fastest plan you can get is about 75 megabits download to your home, and a maximum of about five upload.

CRAIG ZONCA, HOST: Okay.

NELSON: Over the last couple of years with COVID and being forced, or having to work from home, you can't run Zoom meetings, and so forth, with video - it's just absolutely impossible to do it when you've only got five megabits.

ZONCA: Yeah, that sounds quite sluggish.

NELSON: It's really terrible, but those are the speeds that are set by NBN themselves. You can't get a plan that's any faster than that. It's different in some areas that have got the wired NBN to your kerb or to your home - you can pay extra to get faster speeds. But if you're in an area that's kind of on the shoulder of suburbia, or a rural town, or work out in the sticks where you're stuck with satellite, it's absolutely horrendous. And more and more of my neighbours are giving up and buying Starlink which gives you three times the speed.

RYAN: Right.

NELSON: It's at least double the cost, and it's a pretty hefty kind of installation cost as well - but the reliability is infinitely, so much better.

RYAN: Thank you, Nelson. We'll put that to the Federal Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, who's got some news for us. More than 500,000 Queensland households and businesses can now order a full-fibre NBN upgrade including around 225,000 in greater Brisbane. The Minister joins us. Good morning Minister Rowland.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Good morning, how's it going?

RYAN: Good. I don't know if you heard Nelson there just talking about people living further out having trouble with that internet speed. Where are we at, at the moment, with people and the NBN upgrade?

ROWLAND: Well, firstly, Nelson makes some excellent points regarding the challenges that we face in ensuring that everyone has a quality of access to the highest speeds and service that the NBN can provide, and by highlighting that technology which is the fixed-wireless service; he draws on some really good points.

The first is, of course, we are hitting a milestone right now where around half a million premises in Queensland are eligible to access full-fibre NBN upgrades, and nearly half of those are in greater Brisbane. But what we need to do, and what we are doing right now, is upgrading all the technologies across the NBN because we know that irrespective of where you live, the technology, unfortunately, is currently determining the speeds and reliability.

So, we're investing about half a billion dollars in upgrading that Fixed Wireless network, but also upgrading the satellite network so that more people, irrespective of where they live, can have a better-quality service. We've got an unmetered product for the first time, which has been one of the reasons Nelson highlighted, we've had consumers voting with their feet and choosing those LEOsats, those low earth orbit satellites, including from Starlink.

But what we need to do, and what we are getting on with the job of doing, is upgrading all the technologies across the NBN network. It's very pleasing that we're now hitting that milestone of half a million premises around Queensland, but we'll keep going until the job is done because we know, exactly as Nelson said, it's not a nice‑to‑have, it's absolutely essential for consumers and businesses.

ZONCA: Thank you, Minister. Nelson made the point about working from home, and a lot of people are doing that of course, especially post‑COVID. Where are the sort of data hungry suburbs? What parts of Brisbane are we talking about, where the strain is being felt the most?

ROWLAND: Areas like Logan and Redland City are featuring as data hungry. Now it's sort of like three times more data being consumed by average Australians with more and more connected devices. Once upon a time, the number of connected devices in our homes was single figures, now the average is close to twenty as people normalise remote working, telehealth and education.

There's no way that we're going back to an age where we didn't have connected devices and we weren't hungry for more speed. But certainly, in Australia's most decentralised state, it doesn't matter where you live, there is an expectation that there will be that equality of access, and that's what we are doing right now in terms of upgrading all of the NBN technologies. And it really does become a virtuous cycle. We take consumers off that unreliable copper network that's subject to degradation; when it rains, consumers notice because the service quality goes down, and upgrading those people to fibre - getting more people off the satellite service on to a better Fixed Wireless service.

The aim here is by end of 2025, we'll have 90 per cent of fixed-line access being able to access gigabit speeds. Nelson makes the excellent point, again, about the way in which people are impacted by not having accessible, high speeds. We're very alive to that, and, as a Government, we're working with NBN to achieve that.

ZONCA: Michelle Rowland, Federal Minister for Communications on ABC Radio Brisbane. We're talking about this roll‑out. I think a lot of consumers will be excited to hear more and are very keen to hear how it works cost-wise, so what does that look like for consumers?

ROWLAND: Well, the good news is that the fibre lead‑in is provided at no extra charge, but consistent with the NBN's fibre-upgrade plan - that's been going on for a few years - they need to take out an eligible higher-speed plan through their Retail Service Provider. So NBN, as the infrastructure provider, does all the necessary work to get that fibre lead‑in. I strongly encourage local residents and small businesses to go and have a look at the NBN website, see where those upgrades are happening, speak to your Retail Service Provider, and see what plan would be suitable for you.

RYAN: Minister Rowland, on another question, earlier we spoke with Matthew Deaner, who's the CEO of the Screen Producers Australia about the Make it Australian campaign. This is all about what we see on the streaming services, and wanting more Australian content. They're calling on the Government to do something. Here's what he said earlier.

[Excerpt]

MATTHEW DEANER: There should be a 20 per cent reinvestment. You should be putting back 20 per cent of that into making new Australian work going forward. That also needs to be fairly shared between the people that are making the work, so you can't sort of just take everything and run off with it; you've got to share the spoils of all that creativity so that we have an opportunity for sustainable careers and businesses behind the scene.

[End of Excerpt]

RYAN: Minister Rowland, what's your response to that?

ROWLAND: Well, Matt Deaner and the Screen Producers have made their point very well known. We took to the election a commitment to Make it Australian to ensure that - exactly as the Screen Producers say - that load of ensuring Australian content is shared equally. And also that Australians ultimately can access quality Australian content.

We're working very constructively with industry and have been undergoing a process of consultation. We announced this in January with the first National Cultural Policy that we've had in something like over a decade in Revive because we recognise that Australian stories and Australian voices need to not only be told, but they need to have platforms in which they're capable of being accessed by Australians.

We're looking forward to introducing legislation in the new year. We are very grateful for the constructive engagement we've had right across sector, from the Screen Producers and the streamers, who have obviously have been involved in this because they've actually been outside that regulatory framework that currently provides for Australian content requirements. What we want to do is make sure that if you are servicing Australians, that you are contributing towards Australian content.

We look forward to concluding that. It's been a long time coming for the sector and for Australian consumers overall to ensure that, irrespective of what platform there is, we've got a Make it Australian obligation.

RYAN: Federal Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland. Thanks so much for your time today.

ROWLAND: My pleasure.