THE wait goes on for Tamworth in the great National Broadband Network (NBN) roll-out, a project at one time hailed as an economic saviour but which has fallen victim to the dramatic changes in the political landscape in recent years.
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It’s been chopped and changed and re-imagined and rehashed to the point it’s a vastly different beast than the one first proposed all those years ago.
Whatever the form though, it’s now back on track with its roll-out schedule, and when the latest 400 towns, suburbs and cities were announced last week Tamworth fully expected to hear its name. The silence was deafening.
Snubbed, omitted, excluded, overlooked, reshuffled – whatever you care to call it, the wide-scale roll-out of the NBN still remains somewhere in the city’s future and most frustrating of all, no-one can – or is prepared to – give a definite timeframe.
What makes it all the more difficult for the Tamworth area is that neighbour Armidale was one of the first NBN launch sites – not only being one of the first cabs off the rank, but also receiving what many believe to be a superior technology to the one now being championed by the Coalition.
NBN Co argues it’s nothing personal, just an engineering exercise that determined there were other areas more in need of high-speed internet or more advanced in terms of the ease of installation.
Tamworth Regional Council is not so sure though, mayor Col Murray suggesting politics may once again be getting in the way of the National Broadband Network.
The federal government could be seeing it as a way of shoring up support in marginal seats, he said, and with the New England considered safely conservative, they could afford to leave Tamworth off the list.
That suggestion’s been roundly rejected by NBN Co and New England MP Barnaby Joyce, who says the company is working to a plan and the city has been in no way forgotten.
The council’s and business chamber’s frustration is understandable though, having put considerable effort and funds into becoming “NBN-ready” and then learning that it could still be years away.
Fears that business opportunities could be lost to other areas that can boast the technology are also well-founded.
NBN Co’s John Simon makes the pill even harder to swallow when he says that when the NBN finally embraces Tamworth, it will be a “serious economic game-changer”.
Mr Joyce has made approaches to the communications minister and says he is lobbying hard for a commitment to the city.
Given Tamworth’s status as a major regional city – with opportunities for economic and population growth in line with decentralisation goals that all levels of government tell us are a priority – it’s hoped the nation’s biggest infrastructure project doesn’t continue to pass us by.
