That didn’t happen and swift retribution now appears to be the order of the day, with Labor claiming the Coalition has booted 500,000 potential NBN users off the roll-out map.
Parramatta’s federal MP, Labor’s Julie Owens, said the Abbott Government had terminated the National Broadband Network’s fibre rollout in Western Sydney, leaving local residents and businesses having to rely on ageing copper infrastructure.
“Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have pulled the plug on Western Sydney receiving fibre-to-the-home broadband services,” Ms Owens said.
“Despite election promises by Malcolm Turnbull that existing NBN contracts would be honoured by an Abbott Government.
“Under Labor, parts of Blacktown, Prospect and Auburn were scheduled to receive fibre connections in the coming months.”
She said parts of Parramatta were due to see fibre being laid very soon, with construction of the NBN to 62,200 Parramatta homes and business completed or well under way by 2016.
But Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said those affected were actually the victims of Labor’s “lies and spin”.
“(The Labor government) had a metric which said that construction had commenced at the point plans were called for," he told Network Ten.
“This is the equivalent of saying you had started construction on a new house, from the moment you called your architect and asked her to do a sketch plan.”
Mr Turnbull vowed to take marginal seats out of the equation during the roll-out of the NBN and said a survey was underway to identify parts of Australia with the worst broadband.
"(Places) where the need for upgrade is greatest, they will be prioritised," Mr Turnbull said. Cumberland Business Chamber, which has long voiced its disquiet at the western Sydney business community’s treatment in the NBN rollout, may have cause for subdued celebration.
Mr Turnbull said another of his priorities would be getting the NBN to areas where demand for high-speed internet is greatest, including business and industrial parks.
“Residents and businesses in Western Sydney will be left with one of two choices: battle on using out-dated copper, or fork out up to $5,000 to have fibre connected to their home or business,” Ms Owens said.
“Parramatta and Western Sydney residents were looking forward to the benefits and opportunities that affordable, high-speed fibre broadband would bring to the area, but the Abbott Government has taken this away.
“They are now the first victims of the Liberal cuts to the National Broadband Network. The Government should be ramping up the rollout of the NBN, not slowing it down indefinitely.”
The drastic turnaround in affection for Sydney’s west isn’t lost on journalist and blogger Peter Wicks, who posted his scathing observations on his blog wixxyleaks.com in a post titled: “Serve The Servants – The Coalition makes a punching bag of Sydney’s west”.
“It seems like such a short time ago that Western Sydney was apparently important to the Coalition, and we were being constantly told how much they cared for those living in the west and how the Coalition had their best interests at heart,” he wrote.
“The West had a so many visits from Tony Abbott during the election campaign that you would think Peta Credlin lived there.
“Whilst Tony was here we learnt that if you squint really hard then you may find some sex appeal in Penrith MP Fiona Scott, and that when explaining a six point plan to a candidate it is best to get past point one.”
But he said that since the election, “despite flying over the region on his way to the North Shore and Eastern Suburbs, he has yet to drop in for a cup of tea”.
You can read the full post at: http://wixxyleaks.com/2013/11/05/serve-the-servants-the-coalition-makes-a-punching-bag-of-sydneys-west/
