Federal Minister for Communications, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, today provided locals from Mount Gravatt, Carindale, Wynnum and surrounding areas with an update on the NBN rollout across Australia.

Residents had the opportunity to ask nbn-related questions to the Minister, as well as representatives from nbn co and Telstra, at a community information session hosted by Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta.

“The nbn rollout is now one-third complete in Bonner, and I’m pleased to say a third of premises with access have taken up an nbn service,” Mr Vasta said.

Minister Fifield said the nbn was now available to over half of all Australian premises, with 75 per cent expected to have access by June 2018 and all premises to have access by mid-2020.

“The nbn is one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever carried out in Australia. With such a massive undertaking there’ll inevitably be a small percentage of people with issues. This is not to diminish their experiences and nbn co is working hard to improve the consumer experience as the rollout is completed,” Minister Fifield said.

“When the nbn falls short of people’s expectations, often it’s an issue of retailers not purchasing enough capacity to service their customers. The Government is ensuring accountability and has funded the ACCC’s Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting program.”

“Under this program, the ACCC is implementing real-time speed testing at 4000 volunteer sites across the country. This will provide invaluable information on broadband speeds to consumers and motivate retailers to provide the best speeds possible.”

Minister Fifield said the ACCC had published guidelines for retailers on how they should advertise their NBN service speeds. The guidelines advise retailers to clearly advertise the minimum speeds consumers can expect to achieve during peak evening periods, rather than the maximum speeds that may be delivered during off-peak periods.

“The ACCC has made it clear that if retailers fail to meet these guidelines, more formal action will be taken,” Minister Fifield said.

Mr Vasta encouraged people to sign up for broadband performance consumer updates on the ACCC website. 

He asked those with further issues or questions on the NBN rollout to contact his office or visit the nbn co website.

Today I want to focus on young high achievers I’ve met recently from my electorate of Bonner.

I recently had the pleasure of presenting young sports stars from my electorate with their Local Sporting Champions awards. The Local Sporting Champions program is an Australian Government initiative that provides $500 grants to young sportsmen and women aged 12 to 18 to help them cover the costs of attending state, national, and international sports championships.

There were 35 successful applicants from Bonner for the latest Local Sporting Champions round. Five of these sports stars attended my presentation ceremony last week:

• Ella O’Grady from Wynnum North, representing Metropolitan East School at the Football State Championships. Ella one day hopes to play for the Matildas;

• Luisa Gauci from Chandler, representing Queensland at the Youth Women’s Nationals baseball championship. Luisa is the first Brisbane girl to compete in the national Kookaburras team, and was recently in Korea representing Australia;

• Mitchell Torrens from Manly West, participating at the BMX QLD State Championships at the junior elite level;

• Ethan Bennetts from Carindale, representing Queensland Athletics at the Australian Athletics Championships. Ethan is a gold medallist in the hammer throw event and intends to represent Australia at the Olympics one day;

• Erin Hopgood from Wynnum West, representing Redlands City Gym Sports at the TRP State Age Championships.

The Government is proud to support our talented young sports stars and help them achieve their sporting dreams. Good luck to our Local Sporting Champions at their upcoming championships! I encourage other eligible sportsmen and women in Bonner to apply online.

I also recently got to meet some outstanding language students from Mansfield State High School. Eight of these students have received scholarships to travel to Kobe, Japan this month. I also wished bon voyage to French language students heading off to Rouen on exchange. Congratulations to these excellent students, I was happy to present them with Aussie flags and other goodies they can take with them on their trip.

I want to talk about an issue that, without fail, tops the list of concerns of my constituents. At my regular mobile offices, in my community surveys, and when I’m out and about in the community, people continue to raise with me one issue above all else. I’m sure it’s the same for most of my colleagues. That issue, of course, is cost of living.

Residents are telling me it’s getting harder to pay the bills. Small business owners are struggling with rising power prices. Families are finding it harder to cope with childcare fees. And there’s the often debilitating cost of housing—parents and even grandparents are coming to me worried about their children’s ability to afford their first home.

The Coalition went to the last election with a promise to tackle cost of living pressures for households, families, and businesses. We’re continuing to deliver on this commitment and I’m pleased to say this is being reflected in the feedback I’ve been getting from people in the community.

Take power prices. Recent figures from the Australian Energy Regulator show over 460 Queenslanders a week are having their electricity disconnected, a huge jump from last year. And it’s no wonder, with record increases in wholesale electricity prices under the state Labor government flowing through to households and businesses.

At one of my recent community forums, a local from Carindale, Michael Sinitsky, told me that ahead of all the other issues dominating the headlines at the moment, the cost of power is the number one problem that needs addressing. When he’s chatting with friends, family, neighbours and others in the community about issues the government should be focussing on, it’s power prices that dominate the conversation.

It’s great to be able tell Michael and other locals about how the Turnbull Coalition Government has taken decisive action to put downward pressure on power bills. We’re getting on with the job of building Snowy Hydro 2.0. We’ve announced tough new regulations ensuring the gas sector will put Australian businesses and consumers first when it comes to our gas supply. And we’ve delivered the Energy Assistance Payment that will benefit over 21,000 people in Bonner.

More recently, we’ve secured the agreement of our largest energy retailers to implement a number of immediate and ongoing changes. Thanks to this Government’s efforts, the retailers have committed to contacting up to two million Australian households to let them know how they can get better, cheaper deals on their power bills.

We’ve also promoted the Australian Energy Regulator’s comparison website, Energy Made Easy. This site lets households plug in their relevant data to find a better power deal for themselves. Over 300,000 Australians have used Energy Made Easy to check that they're on the best energy plan available to them, potentially saving themselves hundreds of dollars a year.

We’ve also presented legislation to stop electricity networks from gaming the system to boost their profits. It’s a shame that instead of supporting these measures in the Senate that will give families relief from rising power prices, Labor has instead chosen to play politics and referred the legislation to a Senate committee.

The Coalition’s energy policies will benefit not only householders but small businesses as well. It’s so important to support the engine room of our economy—small business employs more than half the Australian workforce after all. As a former small business owner, I know how every dollar counts toward the bottom line. The skyrocketing power prices Queensland’s seen under Labor has meant that instead of being able to employ extra staff or invest in new equipment, small business owners have had to spend more and more to cover their power bills.

Now I’m glad to say our energy policies are paying off for small business. I’m also hearing from more business owners about how our measures designed to back small business are helping them with their day-to-day expenses.

Take Little Gnome, located in the heart of Wynnum CBD. Little Gnome is a bookshop and café run by mother and son duo, Bel and Jack Ellis. It’s a great example of a small business that has taken advantage of the Coalition Government’s small business incentives and programs to their full benefit.

Bel tells me our cut to the small business company tax rate was a welcome sight. It allowed Little Gnome to reinvest in new equipment and technologies. She says it’s also helped them employ extra staff when needed. And she’s just one of many local business owners who’ve told me the small business tax rate reduction has helped them expand and hire more people.

Bel also praised our decision to extend the $20,000 instant asset-write off threshold. Small businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million can now claim a deduction for the business portion of each new or second-hand asset they purchase costing less than $20,000 until June 30th next year—an added bonus to our small business tax cuts, as Bel calls it!

When Little Gnome was starting out, Bel tells me the most valuable tool they had at their disposal was the Federal Government’s small business information portal at business.gov.au. It answered many of their obscure questions on finance, tax, GST, and more.

The Government has also made available to small business owners low-cost business advice through our Australian Small Business Advisory Services Programme. The local provider in my electorate is the Greater Brisbane Small Business Advisory Services—can I just say Alice Langford, Tony Curl, and the rest of the GBSBAS are doing a fantastic job.

The Coalition will always have the back of small business to find and achieve savings wherever possible. We understand that when small businesses are given room to grow, employ more people and pay them better wages, we all benefit.

This is plain to see in the latest National Accounts data. Business conditions have risen to their highest level in almost a decade. Over 240,000 jobs were created in the last financial year alone, the strongest financial year jobs growth since the GFC. And wages are showing a modest but steady rise.

The Coalition is also supporting Australian families, not just with keeping their power bills down, but also with dealing with other cost of living pressures including housing affordability and childcare.

We’ve introduced legislation that lets young Australians save for their first home by building a deposit inside their superannuation. We’ve also boosted the availability of rental accommodation on the market with our foreign resident vacancy tax. And we’ve legislated the Jobs for Families Child Care Package, which is delivering more affordable and more accessible child care for over 10,200 families in Bonner alone.

For people in my electorate like Michael in Carindale, and Bel and Jack from Little Gnome, the Turnbull Coalition Government’s economic plan means better days ahead. Our plan is helping secure small business while creating more and better paying jobs. Most importantly, our plan is putting downward pressure on rising living costs. These are the issues my constituents care about most, and I’m proud to say this Government is delivering for them.

To watch my speech please click here

I want to thank the honourable member for Fowler for moving this motion today to recognise the upcoming National Police Remembrance Day. I've been moved by the speeches already given on this very important day and I appreciate the opportunity to share the vital work police officers are doing in my electorate. I would also like to talk about my own experiences, seeing firsthand the difference that local police make every day.

I would first like to acknowledge Senior Constable Brett Forte of the Queensland Police Service who was so senselessly and tragically taken from us earlier this year. It was a stark reminder of the very real risk that police officers face while on the job. The outpouring of love and support from the community in the aftermath of this tragedy has been heartening. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. Last month the Queensland Police Service Rugby League Association hosted a charity rugby league game in my electorate to raise funds for the Brett Forte Remembrance Fund. There was a great turnout by the public. This event's success is just one of the examples of the strong support my constituents have for our local police, and deservedly so.

In life before politics I was a small business owner, and I enjoyed a close relationship with local law enforcement. There was no issue that they couldn't help me with. To this day I've been fortunate to maintain this good relationship. I can't speak highly enough about the great help they've been in addressing local crime and safety concerns for my constituents. Just recently, a number of my constituents had contacted me, worried about crime in the electorate—particularly in the Gumdale-Wakerley area. I conducted a community safety survey to find out more, and the results showed that the main issues of concern were break-and-enters and hooning. I set up a meeting with Acting Inspector Mark Norrish and Acting Senior Sergeant Carolyn Cox from the Wynnum-Manly police service to discuss these concerns. I then hosted a 'coffee with a cop' in Manly West to give residents the opportunity to get to know their local police officers, to discuss with them their experiences with crime and to seek advice on protecting their homes and properties from lawbreakers.

It's been a pleasure working with local police on this pressing local issue, and I continue to be impressed by the genuine care that they put into their work. I look forward to working more with law enforcement in my electorate to improve safety in the community. Mark Norrish, especially, is doing an outstanding job.

On a side note, I want to thank the state member for Chatsworth, the Hon. Steve Minnikin, for also taking up the issue of crime and safety in the Gumdale and Wakerley area. It was great to attend his crime forum last week alongside hardworking members of the Wynnum/Manly district crime prevention unit. I've heard some eye-opening stories from local police over the years. My sister Pauline works in police intelligence and my brother-in-law Scott is a detective, while my brother and father were prosecutors. They have given me insight into the dangers police officers encounter every day. It is very important to recognise their sacrifices. I'm proud that we have set aside a day to observe the work of our nation's officers and to honour those who have been killed in the line of duty. I'm proud to support our local police, and I must say that they are doing a terrific job under very, very difficult circumstances.

Local seniors had the opportunity to learn more about the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout in and around Carindale and Carina, thanks to an NBN information session today hosted by Federal Member for Bonner, Ross Vasta.

NBN Co representatives, Damon Cavalchini and Johanna de Winter, joined Mr Vasta to help answer questions and provide solutions to attendees’ various connection issues.

“I’m pleased to report that over 20 per cent of the NBN rollout is complete in Bonner, with all premises to have access to NBN services by 2020,” Mr Vasta said.

“Over time the NBN will replace most of the existing networks as the deliverer of a new service network. The network is designed to grow, so at the end of 2020, there will be further plans for path upgrades and speed building to ensure the best service is continually on offer for all users.”

Mr Cavalchini said every household that wanted to keep their landline and internet would be required to switch over to the NBN.

“Every premise in Australia will be connected to the NBN free-of-charge. You will then have 18 months from the installation date to switch over. This will give you plenty of time to shop around and look into the options and packages available to you. You will also be reminded plenty of times during this 18 month period to switch over. NBN sends out all forms of communications to each and every household as a matter of priority as the 18 month deadline draws to a close,” Mr Cavalchini said.

“When contacting a service provider about switching over, ask them: what plan do they suggest, whether there will be any additional installation fees, and if you can keep your current home phone number—in most cases you’ll be able to. Have a good think about what plan will suit you best, you’ll have plenty of time to decide.”

Mr Cavalchini warned that some companies were attempting to take advantage of the rollout.

“If you are contacted by anyone claiming to be from NBN Co and saying you must sign up now to keep your landline or internet, this is false. To switch over, you must go through your service provider, not NBN Co, and you will always have 18 months to do so,” Mr Cavalchini said.

Mr Vasta asked attendees to report any suspicious phone calls or doorknockers to his office.

Mr Cavalchini said people should also consider any medical devices they had currently connected to their home phone lines, and whether they would be compatible with the NBN.

“If you depend on medical alarms, auto diallers, or emergency call buttons, we recommend that you speak to your medical alarm provider before switching over to the NBN, to ensure your medical device will keep working,” Mr Cavalchini said.

“For additional support, you can also register your medical alarm with the NBN online at www.nbn.com.au/medicalregister or by calling 1800 227 300.”

In response to questions about whether extra boxes would be required inside the home to be connected to the NBN, Mr Cavalchini said there are a number of different solutions depending on the location of a person’s property and the service NBN Co is able to provide.

“You may have FTTP (Fibre to the Premise), FTTN (Fibre to the Node), or HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial), which will determine whether you have additional devices to be installed at your premise or not. Discuss with your service provider about what will be required to be installed in your home,” Mr Cavalchini said.

Mr Vasta asked those with further issues or questions to contact his office or visit the NBN Co website at www.nbnco.com.au.

Come and grab a bargain at ST MARKS MONSTER GARAGE SALE

50% of profits to Hope Organisation  – supporting a charity in our local community

Saturday 2 September, 7am to 12noon at Cnr Springwood & Hicks St, Mt Gravatt.

Vintage, Bric a Brac, Kitcheware, Basketware, Old China Ware, CollectablesFurniture, Hardware, Electrical, Computers, Electronics, TV, Music PlayersBooks, Music, Magazines, Records, CDs, DVDsClothingPlantsToys, Games, Puzzles, Bikes, Jigsaws.

Coffee Shop, Devonshire Teas, BBQ, Cakes & SweetsCome and share in the fun, grab some bargains and support the ministries of the St Marks Uniting Church community.