REGIONAL AUSTRALIA FORGOTTEN UNDER TURNBULLS NBN

16 April 2018

The Turnbull Government is failing regional Australia and its Minister for Regional Communications, Senator Bridget McKenzie, has proved incapable of securing better outcomes.

The NBN marketing exercise known as NBN Local has done little to support regional customers, many of whom face ongoing faults, failures and disruptions due to the decisions Turnbull made as Communications Minister.

NBN Co is now scrambling to deliver fibre to the curb to some inner city areas, finally recognising that copper and HFC were a mistake. Despite this, regional Australia is being well and truly left behind.

It should come as no surprise that 83 per cent of small businesses say they have lost confidence in Turnbulls NBN and more than half think they will be left out of the digital economy.

Even NBN Co concedes that 3 in 4 businesses on copper will not be able to reach the maximum advertised speed of 100 Mbps.

The Coalition cannot continue to allow regional Australia to be disproportionately impacted by its multi-technology mix.

Its time the Government own up to its mistakes, accept Turnbulls NBN is a dud, and get more fibre into regional areas before its too late.