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‘Nationals sold rural telco customers out when they sold Telstra off’; Rowe Jane Rowe ALP candidate for Gippsland Jane Rowe applauding the provision of broadband for a number of Gippsland communities said the ‘last gasp’ effort by McGauran only highlighted the Nationals failure to secure rural telecommunications services when they voted to sell off Telstra'. By Jane Rowe - 28th October 2007 - Back to News "Dargo, Seaspray and Golden Beach residents will be able to connect to broadband following new funding from the Federal Government:" McGauran 12/10/07.
Labor candidate for the Federal seat of Gippsland, Jane Rowe has applauded the provision of broadband for residents of Dargo, Seaspray, Golden Beach and a number of other Gippsland communities but Ms Rowe said the ‘last gasp’ effort by the Nationals Peter McGauran only served to highlight ‘what we in regional Gippsland new all along; the Federal Nationals have failed to secure state of the art telecommunications services to rural areas when they voted to sell off the national carrier’.
Ms Rowe said that the imperative by the Federal Government to maximise the sale price for Telstra had meant that there were no guarantees of continuing equity of service to the bush.
"Quite simply the Nationals sold us out at the same time they sold Telstra off" she said.
"They failed to make any binding agreements on the provision of services to regional and rural communities and in the end they were forced to cross subsidise the services bit by bit."
The Labor Candidate said the relatively simple process of ‘flicking the switch’ to broadband for these rural communities had become mired in the continuing spat between the Federal Government and Telstra.
"The big losers have been people in regional Gippsland who should have been guaranteed broadband access prior to the Nationals even considering selling off the national carrier. Again the Nationals said they’d stand up for Gippslanders but in the end it only became an important issue to Mr McGauran when the election was a matter of hours from being called"
Ms Rowe said that Peter McGauran had been forced to concede that the Government would need to provide direct funding to Telstra to supply broadband to the Dargo, Seaspray and Golden Beach communities.
"In the one breath Mr McGauran has exposed his inaction on the Telstra sale. There were no guarantees for future levels of service beyond ‘commercial imperatives’. In effect Mr McGauran and the Nationals have yet again sold out rural services for a ‘quick buck’. Not a very financially responsible thing to do" Ms Rowe said.
Ms Rowe said that under the Nationals discredited scheme this situation will need to be repeated ‘area after area and technology shift to technology shift’ ad infinitum. She said that the Rudd plan for future high speed roll out to regional and rural areas applied a whole of map approach with telecommunications industry leaders rather than the ‘hotchpotch and piecemeal’ excuses of the Liberal/National Government
Labor’s $4.7 billion fibre to the node National Broadband Network will deliver high speed broadband to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses. The remaining two per cent of Australians in regional and remote areas not covered by this network will have improved broadband services guaranteed.
"This will mean internet services up to 40 times faster than most current speeds right across Gippsland Ms Rowe said.
"This will ensure business, education, communication and household services on the Internet - including entertainment - will happen in ‘real time’."
Ms Rowe said that Labor would ‘give certainty back to rural Telco customers’.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: howardw@aapt.net.au
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