“Mike Kelly and Labor are campaigning for changes to the roll out of the NBN that would put at risk delaying the NBN in Narooma and Dalmeny from 2017 out to as late as 2028,” Dr Hendy said.

“I’m working with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to deliver faster broadband to Narooma and Dalmeny within the first 5 years of the Coalition Government, and they are on track for NBN works in 2017.”

“Surrounding areas of Narooma are already under construction for NBN access.”

“We can’t afford to risk this by returning to Mike Kelly’s unfunded and undelivered promises which saw nothing delivered in Narooma and Dalmeny in the 6 years of the former Labor Government.”

“Mike Kelly’s campaign to change the NBN roll out in Queanbeyan would result in further delays to delivering the NBN in Narooma and Dalmeny.”

“A return to Mike Kelly and Labor would see a digital divide between Queanbeyan and the rest of Eden-Monaro. Only under the Coalition Government has the NBN prioritised rural and regional Australia’s access to superfast broadband.”

“A return to Labor will see Narooma and Dalmeny left behind.”

Response from Dr Mike Kelly, Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro

Peter Hendy has in the last few days been distributing press releases about the NBN rollout that can only be described as distortions and deceptions. People right across the region have been telling me how fed up they are at his band of politics.

Here are the facts about the NBN in our region.

When Labor came to government in 2007 we immediately set to work to resolve the 12 years of inaction of the Howard government in this policy area by taking on the massive challenges of the structural separation of Telstra and resolving future commercial arrangements with Telstra and Optus.

This enabled Labor to establish publicly owned NBN infrastructure as a wholesale platform upon which retail competition could take place, but with a policy that meant that people in rural and regional Australia would pay the same wholesale price for broadband as people in the cities. The Abbott/Turnbull government removed this policy so that the people of Eden-Monaro may pay more for broadband than people in our cities. It should be noted that Peter Hendy did not oppose or fight that change.

Labor also instituted a concept that would see almost all Australians serviced by fibre optic cable to the premises (FTTP) with the remainder getting the best quality satellite and wireless services. The Coalition has adopted our satellite and wireless plans and this work continues with services on wireless having begun operation in many areas and the first of the satellites having been launched.

The former Labor Government began construction on optic fibre in Queanbeyan in January 2013. In fact, all of the connections of any kind that have occurred in Eden-Monaro to date are due to the former Labor government’s model. Over the past two years, the delays in the roll out of the NBN to our region have been solely the result of the Turnbull mess created by changing the plan and trying to rely on the old copper system in the Fibre to the Node (FTTN) option.

We know that the weakest part of the system is the old decaying copper, which is vulnerable to floods and storm and requires more power to operate, highlighted again by the recent weather in our region. Despite the savings long term that would have been realised by going to a fibre-only system, the Turnbull government has wasted billions of tax payers’ money buying back the copper network from Telstra and wasting years in renegotiations and delays. It has recently emerged that the cost of patching up the copper network will be 1000 percent more than what the Government said it would be back in 2013.

This reliance on copper is also incredibly short sighted because it will need to be replaced in the near future as technical demands leave it far behind. Already we are losing significant ground to other countries in the OECD and against our major competitors in the region in fibre penetration and infrastructure.

The Abbott/Turnbull government has compounded this by attempting to rely on a “Multi Technology Mix” (MTM) of fibre, copper and the hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cables laid in the cities years ago by Telstra and Optus. This is a Frankenstein’s monster that is requiring vast extra expense to develop an IT management framework for.

In Queanbeyan, Peter Hendy has allowed his own government to create a “digital divide” right through the middle of the town. The northern suburbs of Queanbeyan have or will get Labor’s superior optic fibre NBN, model while Jerrabomberra to the south will get the Coalition’s inferior FTTN version. This is having a serious and unfair effect on relative property values. For all of our region we will be affected by people making choices about where they live depending on whether a home is connected by fibre or not.

Labor’s plan if elected is to get the FTTP option rolling again to future proof our country and create a more reliable and cheaper to maintain system. With this sort of infrastructure it would be my intention to actively seek investment in our region where companies can operate without having to be in the major cities and take advantage of our lifestyle and proximity to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Labor’s vision is to deliver the future economy with better jobs for our kids which will enable them to survive in a world where we will need to have carved out our place in the high technology and high skills markets. Along with Mr Abbott we have all learned not to trust Peter Hendy - he doesn’t care about or fight for our region and spends his time playing ruthless backroom political games.