NEW England independent Tony Windsor has called the timing of AFP raids on former Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy and the homes of two political staffers “suspicious” and “fortuitous”.
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He has called for the truth to be given to Australians and, in particular, country Australians about the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
“The government can’t deny the timing of the raid is “fortuitous” as they work to convince people that their claims about their NBN are better than the original,” Mr Windsor said.
“We need to know the facts about its costs and how it’s going in terms of its rollout timeframe. The current government promised it would be cheaper under their plan and quicker. It has never been about the cost, it has always been about the politics.”
Mr Windsor said regional Australians were being told they had to accept “the second-rate service of fibre to the node instead of fibre to the premises”.
“I am suspicious of what this means for the release of information about the NBN, so that we all can be better informed about where our taxpayer dollars are being spent and who will benefit,” he said.
Mr Windsor said NBN Co. was wholly owned and controlled by the government, so they had a “vested interest in keeping bad news under wraps”.
“While the AFP have indicated that the matter of allegations of ‘unauthorised disclosure of Commonwealth information’ – or, in pub-test terms, ‘leaks’ – was referred to them by the NBN Co itself last December,” he said.
“By NBN Co not volunteering information about its activities to the Australian people it makes people suspicious of why.”
He said, if there was nothing to hide, then the government and NBN Co. should release the results, whether good or bad.