Andrew Woodward, President of the Bellinger River Branch of Labor, has joined the Shadow Minister for Regional Communication, Stephen Jones, in decrying the new nbn local.
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“The insults just keep coming from Malcolm Turnbull and the Nationals,” Mr Woodward said. “With today’s ‘NBN Local’ announcement they’ve proven they’ve gone down the lazy route of PR and selfies instead of fibre to where it needs to go.
“We don’t need spin from the government - we need fibre to our homes. They are totally out of touch. We need a sensible long term investment and roll-out as originally envisaged by Labor and reaffirmed at the 2016 election.
“So instead of investing millions in fibre to outside of our homes, the government is investing millions in PR spin to make us think they’re doing a good job. This is like that ABC satirical comedy Utopia. Utopia has come to Coffs Harbour thanks to the Malcolm Turnbull, the Nationals and NBN.
Mr Woodward drew attention to the language used in NBN’s media release: ‘community relations professionals’, ‘The nationwide team will spend time on-the-ground in regional locations’, ‘to better understand the telecommunications needs at a community level’.
“Today they tell us they ’spend time on-the-ground in regional locations’. This nothing more than spin for 'we land on the first flight and leave on the last flight and do a few tweets and Facebook posts while here at The Jetty'.
“The NBN announcement is laughable. It is a pre-election stunt from the government to try and quell the growing discontent with the shambolic NBN. They should be investing in fibre to the curb instead of fibre to the node and fixed wireless where fibre is feasible and available.
“And let’s be honest, the issue is not what the NBN ‘local team’ has been set-up to address. This is just the same people on the same seats with new business cards administering the same dud roll-out. The issue is bad policy thanks to Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott and the Nationals.
“Just days ago, Malcolm Turnbull went on radio and proudly defended that his second-rate copper broadband is, in fact, not worse than Kenya’s. With the bar set so low by this out of touch Prime Minister, it is little wonder residents in Coffs Harbour and beyond feel let down. Malcolm Turnbull must start listening to consumers, fix his broadband mess, and focus on internet access in Coffs Harbour, not Kenya."
