O’Farrell misleading NSW about NBN and power prices: Conroy
- 29 October, 2012 13:49
- Comments 3
Minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has called on the O’Farrell government to stop misleading the NSW public about the rollout of the NBN and power prices.
According to Conroy, the O’Farrell government is claiming power prices in NSW may have to rise because NBN Co is refusing to pay fair compensation to roll out fibre cable on the state’s power poles.
“This is an absurd and ridiculous claim without any basis in fact. The truth is that the O’Farrell Government is trying to gouge Australian taxpayers, delay the NBN rollout and make it more expensive,” he said.
Conroy mentioned that every other state and territory has finalised sensible commercial arrangements with NBN Co for access to power poles, but the NSW Government wants to charge almost six times as much.
“NBN Co has negotiated in good faith with the NSW Government for almost two years, but from the moment Barry O’Farrell became Premier, they have been frustrated at every turn. NBN Co is seeking to rent access to the poles only and will cover all design, preparation and installation costs,” he said.
He also claimed that excluding Western Australia, if NBN Co accepts what was on the table, it would cost Australian taxpayers an additional $175 million over the life of the NBN – almost six times what utilities in other states and territories are charging.
“It is time for the O'Farrell Government to stop slowing down the rollout and come to an appropriate commercial arrangement so the people of NSW can get the NBN as soon as possible.
“In the interim, NBN Co is prepared to use Commonwealth powers to gain access to the poles it needs now to continue the rollout to the areas of Gosford, Long Jetty and Lidcombe, until sensible commercial arrangements can be finalised with the relevant utilities,” he added.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- Modernizing Security for the Small and Mid-Sized Business – Recommendations for 2013 (Sponsored by McAfee)
- Virtualization and Consolidation Solutions
- McAfee Whitepaper: Building the Business Case for Privacy
- Cloud and Co-Location Solutions
- New Gateway Anti-Malware Technology Sets the Bar for Web Threat Protection (Sponsored by McAfee)
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Armidale hosts fastest wireless NBN in Australia: Fusion Broadband
-
Cisco overtakes IBM as top Cloud hardware provider, research firm says
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
Comments
LmyLefty
1
What more can you expect from this O’Farrell jerk!!
Sickadacrap
2
Another commonwealth threat to the states. Whether they like it or not (and I'm sure the centralist Labor government doesn't) the states of Australia still maintain autonomy in many things and it's about time Labor realised this and discarded their "big stick" attitude to everything. It may work within the unions but the rest of Australia is sick and tired of it.
LmyLefty
3
@Sickadacrap, not according to the opinion polls you Liberal maggot!!! So its okay for the so called autonomous States to keeping ripping off the people, just have to take a look at every Liberal State how much people are suffering all for the triple A rating, capitalist jerks.