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A SHORTEN Government will roll out Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband to homes and businesses on the South Coast.
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications Stephen Jones and Gilmore Labor candidate Fiona Phillips announced the roll out would be made to two million homes and businesses across the nation, including a number of locations in Gilmore.
Mr Jones and Mrs Phillips said Burrill Lake, Dolphin Point, Kings Point, Milton, Mollymook, Mollymook Beach, Narrawallee, Ulladulla, Batehaven, Batemans Bay, Catalina, Denhams Beach, Long Beach, Maloney’s Beach, North Batemans Bay, Sunshine Bay, Surf Beach Surfside, Bream Beach, Erowal Bay, Huskisson, Sanctuary Point, St Georges Basin, Vincentia, Worrowing Heights, Moruya, Moruya Heads, Bendalong, Cunjurong Point, Manyana, Tuross Head, Berry, Culburra Beach, Greenwell Point, Orient Point, Broulee, Malua Bay, Mossy Point, Tomakin and Shoalhaven Heads would be included in the roll out.
“A Shorten Labor Government is committed to fixing the mess Malcolm Turnbull has made to the National Broadband Network in this area,” Mr Jones said.
“Nowra is a town divided. You have a digital divide. Half the town is connected to fibre to the premises and the other half is reliant on a second rate copper fibre to the node roll out proposition.
“That means slower speeds, worse service and more complaints from customers in that part of the town.”
He said Labor would fix the problem with a three stage strategy.
“We guarantee we will connect two million premises to the fibre to the premises model,” he said.
“We will phase down fibre to the node. We know its not working for Australia.
“We will commission Infrastructure Australia to recommend to us the best way we can fix the mess of those covered with fibre to the node.
“We don’t want to see a digital divide in towns like Nowra, driving decisions about where people buy a home or start a business.”
During his visit to Nowra on Wednesday, Labor leader Bill Shorten admitted Nowra’s main street, Junction Street, was divided with businesses on one side of the street connected to one model and business on the other connected to another.
“We can’t fix that overnight,” Mr Jones said.
“We will commission Infrastructure Australia to do a study around the world. We know around the world today companies that started with fibre to the node know it’s not good enough for the future and now they have to go back and fix it.
“We want to learn from their mistakes and will study what’s going on overseas so we can have the best models to solve these problems.”
He said the cost to make the change would also be worked out by Infrastructure Australia and its studies.
“We are committed to ensuring every Australian has access to the NBN. While fibre is the primary means, where we can’t get fibre in, wireless and satellite will be used,” he said.
“We don’t want a Nowra divided. We want a decent broadband network service, we know it matters for the education of your kids, for the future of healthcare delivery and we know it’s important for business.”
Mr Jones said the cost of Malcolm Turnbull’s “second-rate NBN” had almost doubled, as had the time to build it.
“In that time, Australia has dropped from 30th in the world for internet speeds to 60th,” he said.
“Labor will rectify the problems by 2022.”
The pair visited the recently opened Stewart’s Hardware in Nowra, with owner James Stewart saying better broadband access allows the company arrange numerous special orders quickly and easily.
“Being new, we don’t have the capital behind us to carry large amounts of stock. But having faster broadband allows us to show customers what is available, and order it,” he said.
“It allows us to be able to compete. It is key to our survival.
“The old system would take hours for us to do the same thing.”
On Tuesday Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis announced 140 homes and businesses in Sussex Inlet would be connected to the NBN through its fixed wireless service.
An additional 1300 local homes and business from the neighbouring areas of Tomerong, Falls Creek, Wandandian and Huskisson will be able to connect once other towers come on line through Sussex Inlet, while construction to connect Sussex Inlet to NBN’s fixed line network is due to start in August, servicing more than 3600 premises.
