I thank the minister for her response to the member for Kennedy just now. I rise to support the member for Kennedy though, for the reasons that are clear to all of us, I think. While I acknowledge that the minister has indicated that the member for Kennedy’s amendment would duplicate what’s already in place with SIPs, I guess I want to say that everything that we can do as a parliament to ensure that there is fair, equitable, fast, reliable internet for rural and regional Australians we must do, and I’m here to represent the people of Indi in that endeavour. I thank the government for the work they’re doing through RTIRK and through the review of rural and regional telecommunications services more broadly. I was very happy to engage in that process and put in a fulsome submission, calling for, as the member for Kennedy has done, fast, reliable, guaranteed internet for rural and regional Australians, because, as we know, this is actually a fundamental human right now. During COVID, I had students in my electorate competing with students right across the nation for their final year 12 exams, sitting out in trucks on top of hills trying to get a signal for their mobile phone in order to charge through for their online Zoom education—not good enough; clearly not good enough. In rural and regional Australia, we rely on telehealth because we simply don’t have the rural health workforce to provide the health care we need. Again, in order to do that with a full video screen rather than just a telephone, we need fast, reliable internet. Every time I walk down the street—even with the improvements that have absolutely happened under this government to the rollout of NBN, we still of course haven’t got there yet.

In 2022, I introduced legislation into this House speaking to exactly the concerns that the member for Kennedy has put forward today. I absolutely support a universal service obligation and statutory infrastructure provider network that requires the NBN and all telcos to support people living in rural, regional and remote Australia, where in fact so much of our economic powerhouse is located. A key recommendation in my submission to the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review was that the new universal service obligation must address home and business internet delivered as part of the National Broadband Network. I’ve been very grateful to meet with the minister on many occasions and indeed very recently. I understand that consultations are going on in relation to exactly what the new universal service obligation might look like. So I will continue to come to this parliament and work in good faith, including with the member for Kennedy and the minister and my parliamentary colleagues, to ensure that we deliver here in Australia a high-speed, highly functional, reliable NBN for everybody and most especially that we do not leave a single person in rural and regional Australia behind.