With Senator Deborah O'Neill, Senator for NSW, and Anne Charlton, Labor Candidate for Robertson. 

Today, residents of the Central Coast aired their clear dissatisfaction with Malcolm Turnbull’s Fraudband.

Michelle Rowland MP, Shadow Minister for Communications, and Anne Charlton, Labor Candidate for Robertson, met with local residents at an NBN Forum hosted by Senator Deborah O’Neill in Woy Woy. 

Frustrated residents shared their concerns with their NBN experiences, including:

• Slow speeds for consumers.
• Fibre to the Node connections not fit for purpose for small businesses.
• A lack of information and options for power back-ups for medical alarms.
• Installation problems with contractors and modems.
• Consumers not getting the quality and speeds they are paying for. 

Whilst some residents on Fibre to the Premises connections in the audience reported generally positive experiences, the remainder on Malcolm Turnbull’s Fibre to the Node connections shared their profound disappointment.

Labor has been advocating for consumers to receive better information about NBN services, and the release of speed advertising guidance by the ACCC is a welcome step.

Improved information about NBN speeds during busy hours will help consumers differentiate plans based on quality, as well as their price.

This enhances choice whilst ensuring the market is accountable for its offerings.

“The NBN issues raised on the Central Coast reflect the issues I have been hearing at NBN forums across the country. Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate NBN rollout is clearly failing consumers”, Michelle Rowland said.

“Last year the Telecommunications Ombudsman found that almost 40% of the national complaints tally was made up of people here on the Central Coast. Coasties know that Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy Wicks have sold us all a second-rate technology”, Anne Charlton said.

“Businesses on West Street in Umina, Mann Street in Gosford and Karalta Drive in Erina need access to a network that actually works. Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy Wicks have hindered our commercial potential with a slow, broken network”, Ms Charlton said.

“This month the Central Coast was visited by the Parliamentary Inquiry into the NBN. We heard horror stories of delayed connections, missed appointments, drop outs and slow speeds”, Deborah O’Neill said.

“The people of the Central Coast are sick and tired of being used by Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy Wicks as a testing ground for their failed technology”, Senator O’Neill said, “If you are over the NBN run-around ring the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) on 1800 062 058”.