Nationals don’t understand own policy
Stephen Conroy
posted Thursday, 9 February 2012
The National Party needs to come clean on their own broadband policy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said today.
“In a media release, Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker, the Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, demonstrated he doesn’t understand what used to be Coalition policy, or what now masquerades as policy,” Senator Conroy said.
“His claims that OPEL would have ensured more than 98 per cent of Australians had access to speeds of up to 12 Mbps are simply not true.
“Mr Hartsuyker further claims in his release that OPEL included satellite, which it did not.
“OPEL was contracted to provide service to 90% of the slightly less than 600,000 underserved premises. I cancelled the OPEL contract because it was assessed by my Department as reaching far less than the contracted level.
“OPEL was simply another failed Howard Government broadband plan.
“People in regional Australia should be concerned about Mr Hartsuyker’s lack of understanding of current Coalition policy, which is to deny regional Australians access to fibre. The NBN, which is not supported by the Coalition, will connect 70% of regional premises to fibre.
“Further, the Coalition does not support uniform national wholesale pricing; all they are offering is vouchers.
“The Coalition’s policy for broadband in regional Australia is that people should pay more and get less. Mr Hartsuyker’s position again showed that the Coalition only has a negative campaign on the NBN.
“Only the Labor Party is guaranteeing the same price for service regardless of whether you live in the city or the country.”
Tags: broadband, NBN, Regional, regions