The Labor-Green Government needs to come clean and immediately assure all Tasmanians that the NBN roll-out is not suffering from the same mismanagement that saw the home insulation scheme axed.
The NBN roll-out is important to Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Liberals are right behind it. However, we must make sure it is done properly and safely.
News that at least one contractor has suffered an electric shock due to a lack of training and adequate safety equipment should be ringing alarm bells throughout the Labor-Green Government.
This is exactly the sort of shoddy process and mismanagement that saw the home insulation scheme axed. For the sake of our education standards, our economy and job creation, we need this scheme to succeed.
The least the Labor-Green Government could do is call for a complete review of training and safety arrangements. This review should be done before anyone else is injured.
When the home insulation fiasco unfolded, federal Labor claimed that they didn’t know there was an issue. Well, both the federal Labor Government and the Tasmanian Labor-Green Government are on notice. They cannot pretend that they didn’t know there are problems this time.
Reports that a recent convergence of trucks, equipment, and workers in Midway Point was simply a no-work staged exercise might have caused me to criticize the two governments. However such an exercise is mildly amusing when compared to new questions that training and safety of workers are being compromised.
Will they take action, or will they ignore the problem and hope it goes away?
Michael Ferguson MP
Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology
Monday 26 April, 2010
I would like to know are WE going to be connected to the NBN? We live 9kms from the nearest town (by choice) and are unable to receive high speed Broadband. Hence, we are left to battle with a second rate satellite internet service which offers slow/inconsistent speeds due to weather interruptions or traffic and at a cost that is defies belief. This limits our daughters’ education opportunities as she cannot access video conferencing or upload web pages for school assignments for the reasons above. I would like to enrol in an on-line adult education course, but I am unable to because of how disadvantaged we are with satellite internet. We are constantly hearing how great this fast NBN will be, but why are our tax dollars being used to pay for a scheme we may likely never have access to? We are not the only ones in this frustrating situation; I can bet there are thousands of homes Australia wide in the same unacceptable predicament.
The NBN is capable of connecting to rural property customers (including farmers and other businesses located on rural properties) by ensuring there are ‘break out points’ along the routes from town to town. This is not a highly expensive or difficult exercise to implement. Unfortunately the NBN have chosen not to do that.
By ensuring there are these kinds of ‘break out points’ property owners would have options to connect to the NBN when they want. I think a lot of Australians tend forget that the farmers and rural businesses are the economic drivers and supports for many rural communities. They need broadband more than ever – whether it be for clever irrigation systems, education and training or to trade their produce on world markets.