The Federal Government sign off on NBN price hikes 09:35

Yesterday we spoke on the program to the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Look, I think certainly Jim Chalmers is a nice enough bloke, but as Treasurer, and we'll include the Prime Minister on this, does he quite understand what's happening in the real world with the cost of living and the impact of the tax cuts? Just closely looking at the tax cuts, what it actually means for us, and that analysis has been released that shows they'll be effectively wiped out because of bracket creep within two to three years.

If you're paid $50,000 a year, you'll receive an extra $929 over the course of the year. So it's a pay rise of 1.8%. If you make $100,000 a year, an extra $2,179 a year. That's a pay rise of 2.1%. If you're paid $150,000, it's effectively an extra $3,700 a year.

So they're pay increases in a way, take-home pay increases, but they are tiny overall. And does that really do much to alleviate your cost of living pressures? For instance, when you're paying more for public transport, as you are in Sydney this week, when you're paying more to use our toll roads. Let's look at the 2.4% reward for someone on $150,000. How does that really help when inflation was up by 4% as of last week?

That 4% number took in a 5.2% jump in housing costs, 7.4% increase in rents, 6.5% increase in electricity bills, 9.3% rise in fuel.

Now, they're everyday items. We spend money on those things every week. So does effectively a 2% increase in your take-home pay make all that much difference? Tax cuts look good in a press release, but do they really make a difference to your back pocket? And I see this right across the economy at the moment. The federal government says they're making us better off financially, but at the same time, effectively, we are seeing price hikes.

Have a look at other prices that are going up. The cost of passports, the 10-year passport, as of yesterday, increased to $398. In 2023, they were $325. They've gone up 22%. How is that justifiable? If you're on $50,000 a year, the tax cut's about $17 a week. But if you want to get a new passport, it'll take you more than a month to be any better off. It doesn't stop at passports. How about this in the Telegraph?

households struggling amid a cost-of-living crisis are facing skyrocketing NBN prices, so broadband, with hikes of $120 a year on internet plans compared to offers that were available only eight months ago. From this month, major telcos are expected to push up their more affordable NBN plans, so this is the 25 megabits per second plan, and the faster 50 plans. They're expected to increase those by $5 a month, less than a year after households were hit with a similar hike,

which is bringing the total increase of between 10% to 13% since October. Telstra is due to raise their prices of the fast plans from $100 to $105. Their 25 plan will increase from $85 to $89. Aussie Broadband, I've heard good things about Aussie Broadband lately, but their two plans will increase by $4 each to $79 and $89.

Now, the NBN is the federal government. Yes, their services are then resold by Telstra Optus Aussie Broadband.

But it's that wholesale cost that is set by the government, the NBN, that's feeding it to those higher prices. Now, we asked the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, to join us on the program. She declined. She wasn't available, but she did issue a statement. She says,

The government understands that Australians are struggling with cost of living, which is why we scrapped the Coalition's NBN pricing plan that would have hiked prices by inflation plus 3% on some products. She says under the Coalition's pricing plan, every single wholesale broadband product would be more expensive by the 1st of July this year than what it is now. Well, that's all well and good, but I don't think an explanation of, hey, we're not as bad as the other mob...

is good enough when you're still increasing prices. And again, this is the government that's increasing prices. The government controls the national broadband network. And yet there are pressures on government businesses as well. You can't escape that. But internet connection is no longer a luxury. We all need it now. You can't conduct your everyday business. You can't contact a corporation about a problem with your power bill without being connected to the internet. So it's now an essential part of life.

Joining me on the program is the Shadow Communications Minister, David Coleman. Thank you for your time, David. Good to be with you. Why do you think the government signed off? Because in the end, it's the government's behind the NBN. Why did they sign off on these price increases?

That is a fantastic question, Clinton. And I guess only Michelle Rowland can answer that because when the price increase happened, she literally described it as great news for consumers. That is a direct quote. And since October, we've seen price increases of up to 14% on these different plans, minimum of about 9%, 10%, but up to 14%.

And the government said that was great news for consumers and also said that the NBN's proposal would mean affordable prices for consumers. So it's a complete disconnect with reality, to be honest. And, you know, it's Australian families that are paying the price. But in fairness to the NBN, the people who run the NBN and the government behind the NBN, they would be experiencing higher costs themselves. Isn't it fair that they simply pass those costs on?

Well, what they've done here, Clinton, actually, is structure the price increases so that they hit the lowest cost plans the most. And there's a thing called the CVC charge, which is now being charged on each individual who has an NBN 25 or a 50 plan. And what that's meant in practice is...

is they've got the telcos increasing those costs on the 25 and 50 plans. So it's a deliberate strategy. And what the government, I think, wants to do is push people up onto higher cost plans or higher speed plans so they can say they've increased the speeds of the NBN. But the people who are actually paying for it are the majority of families. Because on these two plans, Clinton, there's about 6 million families

are on either the 25 or the 50. Not everyone can afford the 100 or the 500 or the super fast plans. And they're the ones who are getting smashed by this. Are those higher plans? Would there be bigger margins for NBN there as well?

I'm not entirely sure on that. You'd have to put that to NBN. But what NBN has done here, though, Clinton, and what the government has said is great news for consumers, is a structure that is designed to increase prices the most online.

on the lowest cost plans. And that is wrong. It is not what any government should be doing. It's not what a Labor government should be doing. And you've got 68% of all families, about 6 million of the NBN's customers on these plans. I mean, you know, you've got things going from $69 to $79, from 79 to 89, from 95 to 105. And that's over a year, that's 120 bucks. And who at the moment,

has $120 spare dollars in their pocket. There will be people that message me over the next 10 minutes, I suspect, who will say, well, don't bother with the NBN, then.

Just use your phone, but you can't these days, can you? Well, look, some people are switching away from the NBN because of the price increases. So we're actually seeing, outside of what they call greenfields, which is new housing developments, we're seeing declines in NBN customers. And a big reason are these price increases. But what are people using the mobile network? Because the reality is, in this day and age...

you can't be disconnected because you've got other services that you can't do most of your business these days with the government without being connected in some way. Oh, yeah, totally. So people aren't disconnecting entirely, but what some people are doing is getting 5G at home. Right. So you can get a modem at home for 5G, and it's usually a bit cheaper than the NBN. The difference didn't used to be that much, but now the difference is quite significant. So quite a lot of people are saying, well, look, I can't afford...

the government's higher prices. I can't afford Anthony Albanese's price increases on the NBN and I'm going to get the 5G product. So as I said, yeah, outside of new housing developments, the NBN is actually losing customers. But for those 6 million customers that remain on these two plans, it's a significant impost. Well, in the end, this is an issue for the government. They are the NBN. It's one of the

the corporations that hasn't been privatised yet so they've got control of it. Thank you for your time, David. Thanks, Clinton. David Coleman, who's the Shadow Communications Minister. How much are you paying and have you received notification, whether you're with Optus, Vodafone, Aussie, Broadband, Telstra, whoever, have you received notification that your bill is going to go up?

My Optus bill has gone up in the last three months to think about it. Now, the NBN is owned 100% by the government. And yes, they have higher costs. We're in an inflationary environment. You can't escape that. However, given the government says they're concerned about cost of living issues, that's why Albo's not going overseas. And I applaud him for that decision. This actually is a cost of living issue they could control.