I caught an interesting piece of a speech in the House of Representatives last night, a speech which seemed to further muddy up and contradict the broadband message of the Federal Opposition. The speech came from the the Member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt.
| ADJOURNMENT Hasluck Electorate: Broadband |
“I call on Minister Conroy to intervene and actually try to speed up the rollout, which, in turn, will save taxpayers’ money and improve services to everyday Australians in my electorate of Hasluck.”
Hang on a minute.
Doesn’t Malcolm Turnbull tell us constantly that his alternative broadband plan will deliver “superfast” broadband to Australia more quickly, and more cheaply?
So why is Wyatt calling for Stephen Conroy to “speed up the rollout” of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in the belief that it will “save taxpayers’ money”?
It sounds like he is saying that it will be “cheaper and faster” the “NBN way”. Do they even get together to agree on a position before they speak?
Interestingly, Wyatt also spoke in his speech of a “broadband forum” he had organised over the weekend in his electorate:
“For those in the south of my electorate where the majority of issues with a lack of internet services are, I organised a broadband forum, and Malcolm spoke to a very well informed crowd of local residents.”
I really question the validity of this forum, given this Twitter exchange Wyatt had over the weekend:
TWEET: “@KenWyattMP @TurnbullMalcolm Damn wanted to ask if the FTTN plan would place above ground cabinets all over our beautiful region / country”
TWEET: “@themann @turnbullmalcolm Ken’s office: Sorry but tonight is invite only. Invitations went to people who expressed issues with broadband etc”
So the “broadband forum” was an invite only affair, with those invited being people who complained to their local Liberal member of parliament? I guess they were also hand-picked invitees who agreed with opposition broadband policy?
So what we have is another contradictory message, and a politically motivated “broadband forum”.
Turnbull was of course out west with Wyatt, and as it turns out another local Liberal MP, Steve Irons, earlier in the week:
TWEET: “With @steveironsmp in Victoria Park not finding a lot of evidence of #NBN construction. Got some brochures at the information session tho!”
Turnbull was trying to suggest that nothing was going on in terms of NBN construction in Victoria Park. Up chimed one of my Twitter followers with:
TWEET: “@TurnbullMalcolm: @mwyres fibre went past our work 6 weeks or so ago in Vic park. #justSayin #nbn”
Seems they are doing okay in Victoria Park with NBN construction afterall.
So, another day, another round of mixed up messages on broadband from the opposition.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.