Broadband was central to Independent MP Tony Windsor's decision to back Labor, delivering it a 76 - 74 majority in Australia's lower house.Fellow independent Rob Oakeshott also backed Julia Gillard's party, while a third, Bob Katter, broke for the Liberal
Broadband was central to Independent MP Tony Windsor's decision to back Labor, delivering it a 76 - 74 majority in Australia's lower house.
Fellow independent Rob Oakeshott also backed Julia Gillard's party, while a third, Bob Katter, broke for the Liberal-National coalition.
"The issues [sic] that I thought were critical to this, and possibly the most critical, was broadband," Mr Windsor told a press conference in Canberra.
The opposition coalition had promised to drastically scale back Labor's $A43 billion national broadband network (NBN) in favour of a much smaller incentive programme to be led by the private sector. It also pledged to reverse the structural separation of Telstra.
"You do it once, you do it right, and you do it with fibre," Mr Windsor said, summing up the advice he'd received during his 17-day post-election deliberation.
"There’s an enormous opportunity for regional Australians to engage with the infrastructure of this century and to pass up that opportunity and miss the opportunity for millions of country Australians, I thought, was too good an opportunity to miss," said the rural conservative MP.
Mr Oakeshott was also an NBN supporter.
"There was a combined sigh of relief in (most of) the telecoms industry when the Independents decided to support a Labor government," market analyst Paul Budde said soon after the independents' decisions were announced.
Ovum research director Kevin Noonan was more circumspect.
"The NBN will continue. [But] is not yet clear what concessions have been made to the independents," he wrote.
Same broadband pricing for rural, urban areas
At the later Canberra press conference, Mr Windsor did not offer full details, but did indicate the two independents had won two major NBN concessions.
“One of the breakthroughs that we did have, and the prime minister will probably announce this, is in relation to the broadband network, there’ll be equity in terms of the wholesale pricing across country areas – that’s a significant additional value add to the arrangements for broadband,” Mr Windsor said.
A second concession appeared to be that regional areas would be prioritised, going by slightly cryptic comments from Mr Oakeshott:
“Roll-in, not roll-out: priority for regional areas first, so it’s a broadband roll-in now - bingo!” said the rural MP
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