Raiding the Labor party’s offices was, for me, one of the best things to happen yet in the roll-up to the elections, because it pulled very tight focus on the roll-out of the NBN.
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Everything that I’ve written in past letters to the editor of the NDL about the failure of the Abbott Liberal government to bring the NBN to Tamworth city has now been confirmed.
It is because of a failure by the then-minister for communications Malcolm Turnbull to understand the true viability of the fibre-to-the-node model being instigated by the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Ministers responsible for communications in those governments repeatedly stated that the best, cheapest and fastest option to get high-speed internet services to the people of Australia was fibre to the node.
Instead of agreeing with that analysis, the man who is reported to refer to himself as the cleverest man in the room was in fact the dunce in the corner on this issue, except that he was wearing a top hat and not the dunce’s cap.
Because of his stubborn insistence that the old copper network could be used to deliver high-quality NBN to Australia far cheaper and just as fast, we’ve gone from the 30th fastest internet speed on the planet to the 60th and dropping fast.
The cost of repairing the old copper network and upgrading it to be compatible with NBN delivery has turned out to be so expensive as to blow out the cost of installing the Malcolm Turnbull model by billions, and his promise that his model would meet the rollout deadline of 2016 has quite simply been broken.
Make no mistake, the NBN is without a doubt one of the most significant pieces of national infrastructure ever promised to this country.
It is precisely what a country as isolated and as sparsely populated as Australia must have to stay in the race as we move forward into this new century, and it is what Tamworth, a recognised regional hub, must have.
Armidale received the NBN early in the roll-out for some political reason or other, and while it is an important regional city it is certainly not the regional business hub that Tamworth is.
Why do minor communities surrounding Tamworth have NBN while Tamworth city does not? Only Barnaby Joyce can answer that one.
He has been pictured posing with a smartphone in certain small towns and villages surrounding Tamworth, boasting that he personally brought the NBN into these communities. Why did he choose not to bring it to Tamworth?
He has never positively answered any questions put to him about this matter and even now, a step away from the elections, the only candidate who is promising to fight to get the NBN into Tamworth city is Tony Windsor.
Mr Windsor managed to get many things done for this community, both as a state member and a national member for Tamworth, and I trust him to do what he promises if elected in this next election.