Broadband Bungling Leaves Cowper Out In The Cold, says Hartsuyker

27 November, 2008

The Rudd Government’s bungling over its so-called National Broadband Network will leave Cowper lagging far behind urban areas of Australia, The Nationals’ Federal Member, Luke Hartsuyker, said today (Thursday).

He was commenting following confirmation that none of the tenders received met Labor’s election commitment to provide 98 per cent coverage of world-class fibre-to-the-node broadband.

 

“This whole process has been flawed from the start,” said Mr Hartsuyker.

 

“First, the Rudd Government tore up the Coalition Government’s OPEL contract which would by now have been delivering high-speed services to rural and regional Australia.

 

“Then it comes up with its vague and under-funded scheme which is already more than six months behind schedule.

 

“We also know that this network will only really benefit the Labor heartland of the big cities and that it will be eight years before it starts to reach regional Australia.

 

“What we don’t know is which parts of regional Australia will benefit, if ever.  We still don’t know if the Rudd’s Government network will reach, for instance, the Dorrigo plateau, Taylors Arm, the Promised Land, the Lower Clarence or Upper Macleay, to name just a few areas of the electorate of Cowper.

 

“The big question for the people of Cowper is not ‘who gets broadband?’ but ‘who is going to miss out?’.”

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