Final independent backs Labor's National Broadband Network
- 27 August, 2010 14:31
- Comments 9
The final potential independent MP that may decide which party becomes the Australian Government, Andrew Wilkie, has come out in support of Labor’s National Broadband Network.
In comments made to the ABC’s Stateline program and reported online, the Tasmanian MP said he was set to meet the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, in coming days.
“I’m a strong believer in the National Broadband Network as advocated and being built by the Labor Party,” he said to the ABC. “On that particular issue I favour the Labor Party’s position.”
Wilkie is the last of five independents that are set to decide which party takes control of the nation. Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Adam Bandt make up the other four. Although his position isn’t set in stone, his lead in counting makes it likely that he will win.
This latest statement means that all five independents are supporters of the NBN, albeit with questions over its cost.
Katter has also criticised the Coalition’s $6.3 billion plan as having too much privatisation.
Labor’s rollout of the NBN in Tasmania was widely seen as a contributor to its success in the state. The state is the first in Australia to get fibre to the premises and is currently on schedule and 10 per cent under budget, according to communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy.
Although the comments may come as a set back to the Coalition’s chances of forming a Government, political experts have long claimed Wilkie is unlikely to sign onto a Liberal-led Government after his experience as a whistle-blower during the Howard Government and his background as a former-Greens party member.
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Comments
laura
adam bandt perhaps? never met rob bandt... :D
Anonymous
Good catch Laura - egg on face! I blame it on Friday afternoons.
Thanks,
David Ramli
addinall
Meanwhile the rest of the PLANET is implementing hybrid LTE, satellite, FTTN networks. The USA tried FTTH and so far have managed 1% saturation. Meanwhile, they are building an LTE network that will provide 100 mbps to 260 million people for around $12 BILLION AUD.
Hmmph
Care to cite any of those numbers, addinall? It appears that once again we have another person living in a fantasy world where wireless internet is actually capable of delivering those oft-touted theoretical speeds to 100% of users 100% of the time, regardless of network congestion or signal strength. Many of the wireless cheerleaders need to face the reality that while wireless internet certainly has its place in the bigger telecommunications picture, it is sheer lunacy to believe that wireless can completely supplant fixed-line services. Wireless is, and will be, the inferior technology for the foreseeable future, end of discussion.
B G
Wow more wireless fanboism. I think you need to learn the words "up to" the same way adsl2+ is "up to" 24mbps LTE is typically delivering consistent speeds comparable to current ADSL 2+ connections. It is no comparison to FTTH.
Justin
I design and implement networks for the government and private sector. The wireless networks I have implemented were not cheaper than the wired networks. To meet the requirements in some places, we had to cable excessive amount of WAP's in places where people congregate and to cover black spots.
The coalitions plan really is not a plan. If they costed wireless to the whole population, it would proibably cost more than 42 Billion.
Governmanets have wasted money for years. I bet the government waste probably 100's of billion a year in bad policies just handing money out to buy a vote or help the battlers/working families.
Rodney
I don't think any industry professional could claim without conservative bias that wireless can even come close to the quality of fibre. I don't really hear latency mentioned in these arguments, which is higher on wireless networks in my experience, substantially.
I like the analogy of when electricity was rolled out that people didn't want to spend the money on having lights when candles would suffice. That's how moronic most of the arguments against are. They can't even imagine the benefits and developments that will come from this.
TuffGuy
There is just one humungous point that all these wireless promoters seem not to be able to get their heads around and that is the maximum speed. Sure Telstra are launching their 3G or whatever at 42Gbps but that is the THEORETICAL MAXIMUM speed possible. That means it cannot and never will be that fast and the more people that use it the slower the connection. If doomsday comes and Abbott takes over as PM and puts everyone on his crappy wireless network all at once most of us (those not already on cable that is) will be lucky to see the speeds we have already. At 3.3Km from my local exchange I currently get around 7.5Mbps.
nutjob
Yeah what they don't tell you is that the quoted maximum speeds are the total optimal bandwidth in a cell, so you have to be alone in, and adjacent to, the cell. It's just laughable.
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