A Shorten Labor Government will build a fibre NBN link to the West Coast of Tasmania, connecting Queenstown, Rosebery and Zeehan to fibre.
This will reverse Mr Turnbull’s sneaky and unfair decision to rip the West Coast of Tasmania off the fibre NBN map and instead provide them with an inappropriate satellite solution.
This fibre link will mean that Tasmanians living on the West Coast will get the fast internet speeds that come with a fibre connection.
Before the last election, Queenstown, Rosebery and Zeehan were scheduled to be connected to Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises NBN, with construction to start by December 2014.
Before the election, Mr Turnbull promised Tasmanians he would:
- “honour all contracts” for the fibre rollout in Tasmania; and
- Roll out the NBN to all Tasmanian homes and businesses by 2015.
In Government, Mr Turnbull broke these promises.
Mr Turnbull and Brett Whiteley then said that the West Coast would be connected to the second rate fibre-to-the-node network, with construction to start by June 2016.
They broke this promise too.
In 2015, Mr Turnbull quietly put the West Coast on the NBN satellites without even informing the community—it only came out in Senate testimony.
Mr Turnbull has treated the West Coast of Tasmania with contempt and Brett Whiteley has been a willing accomplice.
Justine Keay and Anne Urquhart have been tireless advocates for the West Coast of Tasmania. They have demanded that the residents of Queenstown, Rosebery and Zeehan be connected to the NBN with fibre. Labor will make it happen.
A Shorten Labor Government will also work with the Tasmanian Government to lease capacity on TasNetwork’s West Coast fibre network to provide redundancy. This will mean that if the link goes down the fibre service to the West Coast will still operate.
The cost of this project is estimated to be approximately $29 million, including contingency. This will be met from within the existing budget allocation for the NBN.
Malcolm Turnbull has made a mess of the NBN. In the last three years:
- the cost of his second rate NBN has doubled
- the time it will take to build has doubled, and
- Australia has dropped from 30th in the world for internet speeds to 60th.
A Shorten Labor Government will fix Malcolm Turnbull’s Mess and deliver the West Coast of Tasmania the 21st century infrastructure it was promised.
WEDNESDAY, 27 APRIL 2016
MEDIA CONTACT: ANDY BYRNE (CLARE) 02 9790 2466
