Labor fails North-East on Broken Broadband Promise
19-January-2009
Revelations that the Rudd Labor Government will cut millions of dollars in grants and reduce subsidies from its rural broadband subsidy scheme is bad news for local residents and families in the North-East, Federal Liberal Member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella said today.
It has been reported that the Rudd Government plans to reduce subsidies and grants available under the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) by tens-of-millions of dollars because of the continued expansion of the 3G wireless services.
“I find it totally unacceptable that the Prime Minister and Minister Conroy have decided that regional broadband cuts are the way to go, despite promising a so-called national broadband revolution,” Mrs Mirabella said.
“The Rudd Government’s motivation to spend $4.7 billion of taxpayer’s money on its trouble-plagued National Broadband Network which-will only replicate the type of fixed-line services already available to many Australians, is what they should be looking at cutting. Not funding for broadband in rural and regional areas such as the North-East.”
“It is a major blow to residents here in the North-East that the Rudd Labor Government has already given up on those choosing not to live in Labor’s preferred location - the city. It is a sad indictment that after only a year in Government, Mr Rudd has already given up on delivering fibre-to-the-node in rural, regional and remote Australia as promised,” Mrs Mirabella said.
“On top of this, the Government will now tell rural and regional Australians that “even though we promised you fibre to the node broadband like in the city, we’ve decided that you can’t have it and expensive wireless or satellite is all you deserve”. That is not good enough and the Opposition will be fighting against the Government’s shameful plans.”
“The previous Coalition Government was to contribute $958 million towards a new, high speed broadband network for under-serviced parts of rural and regional Australia (OPEL), which was targeted for completion by mid this year. Sadly Labor in a cheap political stunt cancelled this project with no alternative to it and now also wants to cut even more from remote Australia,” Mrs Mirabella said.
“It just goes to show Labor’s broadband revolution plans were nothing more than a cruel and cynical hoax designed to get it through an election campaign,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.