Press Conference - Bendigo, Victoria

LISA CHESTERS: Welcome everybody – Lisa Chesters, I am the local federal Member of Parliament, the Member for Bendigo, and very proud to stand here today with my friend and Minister for Communications, Federal Minister Michelle Rowland. Michelle is back in Bendigo – it’s not her first visit – with a very exciting announcement and update on the NBN rollout here and across central Victoria. It has been an issue for many years, telecommunications in this electorate.

Quick history: we have a big part of our region that is on satellite. It’s the only option available because of the geography and the nature of being a regional and rural electorate. Our outer parts of Bendigo and parts of the Mount Alexander region are on fixed wireless towers. So, a large number of businesses and households that rely upon satellite or fixed wireless technology to connect to the NBN.

The NBN is vital these days. So much of our lives is online, and that’s why I’m so excited to have our Minister for Communications here to announce how our government is helping people connect to faster internet so they can do what they need to do in their very busy lives. Welcome back to Bendigo, Michelle.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Thanks so much, Lisa. It is great to be back here in Bendigo and with Chris from an NBN Local. It’s no secret that Lisa has been one of the most vocal advocates for improved connectivity services for her electorate. She understands the importance of having the best connectivity in terms of broadband, in terms of mobile services, in terms of making sure that everyone, regardless of where they live or work in Australia, can access the best quality communication services.

I’m delighted to be here in Bendigo to reaffirm this government’s commitment, we recently launched the NBN Sky Muster Plus Premium satellite service, the first consumer satellite service of its kind and it is now offering uncapped data and unmetered speeds 24/7.

These upgrades are significant and they follow a trial of 10,000 customers around Australia which was successful and determined that this speed and this quality was certainly what Australians wanted.  I’m so pleased to be able to announce that here in Bendigo there’s some 3,300 premises to be upgraded, which will see consumers and small businesses able to benefit.

This complements the work that we are doing on other technology over the NBN network here in Bendigo with our $480 million investment to upgrade the fixed wireless system as well as fibering up previously coppered areas, including here in Bendigo where there’s been substantial concern, as Lisa has raised for many years. This is our $2.4 billion investment in fibering up parts of Australia that have been left stranded on copper for too long. That will enable some 660 thousand premises alone in the regions – that is just in the regions, including here in Bendigo – to have access to the highest quality services.

We believe that irrespective of where you live or work in Australia, you should have access to the best services. What we’re announcing here today reaffirms that commitment, and I’m sure the residents and small businesses of Bendigo will be very pleased with the results.

CHRIS CUSACK, NBN LOCAL: I’m delighted to be here with Minister Rowland today and the local member, Lisa Chesters, to make this announcement with the launch of the Sky Muster Plus Premium offer. It’s a fantastic step forward for those customers in rural Australia and regional Australia that are leveraging our satellite network. As the Minister mentioned, it’s really been enabled by investments that we’re making right across the NBN and, in particular, the $750 million upgrade of the fixed wireless network, which is enabling 120,000 customers that were initially mapped to the satellite network to be able to move across to fixed wireless. That ensures that we’ve got capacity to offer a great experience at high speeds and unmetered content, as the Minister said, on our Sky Muster Plus Premium offer.

JOURNALIST: How much more reliable should Bendigo residents expect their internet to be as a result of these upgrades?

ROWLAND: It’s a substantial improvement on the satellite service they’re receiving now. Where previously we had capped services, and there was metred data usage, this enables residents to access 100 megabits per speeds and also provides that unmetered speeds and uncapped data. We know that consumers are more data hungry than ever before. They’ve got multiple devices in the one house. For small businesses it’s absolutely essential. What this will be is an overall vastly improved experience.

But as we said too, this comes across our range of technologies. By upgrading the fixed wireless network we’re able to take users off in the satellite service and that means that with that capacity being freed up it’s a better service for those people who are left on the satellite.

JOURNALIST: So will there be further improvements planned so that more people can get off the satellite service and go on to the fixed, or is that not possible in this region?

ROWLAND: NBN Co is always looking to upgrade its services wherever possible. We’ve announced the initial one million premises around Australia, for example, that have been fibred up, and they include a substantial number here in Bendigo as well, including in areas like Castlemaine and Kangaroo Flat. But we’re always looking at options to improve those services, and certainly the NBN Local team is always very ready to take feedback, and I know Lisa will continue to be a very strong advocate for that.

JOURNALIST: And when should people notice that there was change in their service?

ROWLAND: From the 1st of June this has been made available. And anyone who wants to obtain this can contact their retail service provider or register through NBN and get connected and enjoy the better service.

JOURNALIST: Minister, how will this technology cope with the influx of over 50,000 people during the 2026 Commonwealth Games?

ROWLAND: What we are always looking for is ways to improve the network, not only with the NBN but in other areas of communications policy as well, and that includes mobile upgrades and ensuring that we've got redundancy in our networks when it comes to emergencies. At times when you have these influxes, it’s actually not new for a lot of these telcos to experience. Primarily that relies on people who are transient and it relies on mobile networks to be configured accordingly.

We know that in the past the carriers have worked constructively for major events that come and go, including in regional areas. So planning for that is fundamental. I know the carriers are very ready and have been engaging on this. Lisa will well know as a regional MP that when you have different festivals and different large events, for example, that does present capacity issues, but the key thing here is planning but above all else ensuring that we’ve got the fundamentals right with our own network, and that includes upgrading the NBN, as we’ve announced today.

JOURNALIST: Okay, sure. So will there be further infrastructure before the games or will this be enough to kind of rely on for those extra people coming to town?

ROWLAND: I think I’ll defer to Lisa for some of that, but in terms of the NBN, we’ve announce improvements to all three technologies since coming to government, so within the last year. That includes the $2.4 billion investment in fibering up copper areas, $480 million investment in the fixed wireless network, and this announcement today of the vastly improved Sky Muster Satellite service is a really important bedrock in ensuring that we’ve got those fundamentals right. Lisa.

CHESTERS: So on what will happen over the two-month period of the Commonwealth Games, because, as the Minister said, the majority of the people will be coming into town, they won’t actually have a fixed address, the state government is in discussions, active discussions, with the telcos like Telstra and Optus about how best to make sure that we’ve got decent mobile coverage during that period. If they have a fixed address, if they’re staying at a hotel, if they’re at an Airbnb or if they’re in a new premises that is to be built, then that will get the NBN connection for that area as per a new home would be built in Huntley. I do know that the state government is aware of that. They’re the responsible government that is rolling out the Commonwealth Games, and they’re in active discussions with the telcos, who are very excited to be partners in the Commonwealth Games and have all these great trucks that they’ll be bringing in to make sure that people can connect during the games.

But as the Minister said, we know that at the moment if there’s a concert at Hanging Rock the network really struggles. We know that if we have a concert out at the showground the network really struggles. And because of that the mobile network is struggling. We know from experience that we need to have the technology ready for the Commonwealth Games.

JOURNALIST: I guess to defer to the pragmatic, with the Sky Muster, what does it actually look like in the real world? Is it people being able to have Netflix loaded faster? What does it look like from the day to day?

CHESTERS: We have a lot of farmers in our network who are very excited about the upgrade and the uncapping for both Sky Muster and for the fixed wireless towers, because it just means that they can get on time data management of their farms. Our farmers want to be able to connect and do a lot of modern farming by using their apps, their phones and the internet. This allows them to do that. The last thing you want is the internet connection dropping out or you’ve hit your data limit when you’re trying to cool or heat a facility that you’ve got animals in. So I know that our farming community are very excited.

The people who’ve tree-changed out of Melbourne and are trying to work from home having bought beautiful homes in Mandurang or in Sedgwick really welcome this. People who I know who live in Junortoun who are relying on fixed wireless towers working at the hospital being able to see the x-rays at home before they head in, being able to do that work from home is really welcomed.

So as we sort of have adapted to that new way of working at home, working in an office or working at a hospital, being able to have fast, reliable internet is critical. And the download ability, I do still get messages on Facebook and text messages from people who are going, “I have to go into the hospital at 4 o’clock in the morning because I just can’t get the speeds I need.” And that anaesthetist was the first person I contacted on June 1 to be able to say, “Great news – our government is helping to increase the speeds and the download ability for the service in your area.”

JOURNALIST: Thank you both so much.

JOURNALIST: With respect, I know the Commonwealth Games is very important, but this is a growing regional town. What are we going to be doing to make sure that we don’t just have to boost capability when there’s events on but there is a constant ability to rely on this area to be able to connect?

CHESTERS: Well, that’s exactly why the Minister is here today. The Commonwealth Games, because it’s being rolled out by the state government, they’re working with the telcos on how do we boost and make sure we have the mobile phone reception that we need for the Commonwealth Games. At a federal level the Minister being here is the day to day. It is making sure that homes and businesses, regardless of where you are in the Bendigo electorate, are going to have fast, reliable internet. It’s the first time that I can say in a decade that we’re here. The fixed wireless towers built by Julia Gillard when she was Prime Minister were turned on very late by the previous government and have been patchy. They’ve been getting better over time, but today we can actually say people can download the speeds that they need – at the speeds that they need, and that’s exciting.

ROWLAND: You do raise a very pertinent point, though. There’s lots of outer metropolitan areas that are in growth but also regional areas like this that are in growth as well. I’m shortly going to be convening a planning Ministers meeting as part of Minister Catherine King’s regional portfolio. It’s the first time this has been done to specifically look at communications planning because unfortunately when you move into a new area or a developer undertakes a new development, there’s obligations to have essential utilities in place, including water and electricity, for example. Mobile services are often the last on the list. Retrofitting them in areas is far more expensive and much more complicated than putting them in at the time.

So that’s one of the key issues that I’ll be looking at, not only just in outer metropolitan areas but in regional growth centres. I’ll also be looking at  how the telcos should be involved in that planning process and whether the current regulations that are in place  which are essentially designed for a time when the only infrastructure rolled out was by Telecom, not Telstra, and it was copper in the ground, needs to be updated This is to ensure we’re responding to the needs of consumers and small businesses right across Australia.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.