Tasmanians are the latest to be deceived by a broken promise from the Liberal Party.
Before the election Malcolm Turnbull said a Liberal Government would honour existing contracts to roll Fibre-to-the-Premises broadband out right across Tasmania.
He said:
“the alternative would be to breach them [the contracts] and that is a course we would not countenance.”
Malcolm Turnbull – The Examiner – August 17, 2013
These contracts are to build a fibre-to-the-premises network.
Today, NBN Co boss Ziggy Switkowski has confirmed this promise will be broken. He told ABC radio this morning that parts of Tasmania will in fact get the Liberal’s second rate broadband model and not Labor’s super-fast National Broadband Network.
He said:
“Obviously in the previous model, the infrastructure was going to be an all fibre infrastructure…post the election and post the strategic review, we’ve now agreed on a multi-technology model where we’ll seek to use the existing copper network where we can.”
Ziggy Switkowski – ABC Hobart, Mornings with Leon Compton – February 13, 2014
Tasmanians went to the polls in September last year thinking that regardless of the election result, all homes and businesses in the state would get superfast fibre-to-the-premises broadband and not a second rate copper network.
That has now been shattered by this broken promise.
“Before the election Malcolm Turnbull promised to honour existing contracts. He has broken that promise.” Mr Clare said.
“The truth is finally out there and the truth is that Tony Abbott has pulled the plug on Tasmania. The superfast broadband that Tasmanians expect, need and deserve is now a shattered dream.” Ms Collins said.
“This is an issue of trust. The Liberal party has lied to the Australian people again and it shows you can’t believe anything they say,” Mr Clare said.
MEDIA CONTACT: RYAN HAMILTON 02 9790 2466
