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Telecommunications Coonan blasts ALP broadband plan
Telecommunications Coonan blasts ALP broadband plan | Coonan blasts ALP broadband plan |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 21 March 2007 | |
  
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Coonan claimed that, through the plan, the ALP would "entrench its legendary neglect for rural and regional Australia by abolishing the $2 billion Communications Fund earmarked to ensure that non-metropolitan Australians can get reliable services in the future." She claimed that "Labor will rip funds for communications services out of rural and regional Australia to benefit the central commercial areas of Australia's mainland capital cities, taking funds for broadband out of Ballarat and into Collins Street, out of Tamworth and into Pitt Street, and out of the Pilbara and into St Georges Terrace. Their proposal is unlikely to go anywhere near Hobart, Darwin, Wollongong, Canberra, Townsville, Cairns, Burnie or Geelong." In a rowdy session in Parliamentary Question Time following the speech, the Government focussed on the ALP's plan to fund the project by combining $2 billion from the current government Broadband fund with $2.7 billion to be provided by the Future Fund selling its current 17 percent stake in Telstra. Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, called it a "smash and grab" raid on the Future Fund and said it was evidence that Labor could not be trusted to manage the nation's finances.{moscomment} |
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