17 June 2016
SENATOR DEAN SMITH
SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
MR JEREMY QUINN
LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR PERTH
Liberal candidate for Perth Jeremy Quinn together with the Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield and Western Australian Senator Dean Smith, today announced 3,865 premises in the electorate of Perth can now get access to the National Broadband Network (nbn).
“The message for residents is clear superfast broadband has arrived in Perth,” Mr Quinn said.
The nbn is now live at a list of apartment blocks in the city of Perth using fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) technology, which delivers high-speed broadband without requiring extensive rewiring and civil works inside apartments.
The Turnbull Government is rolling out high-speed broadband across Australia in the fastest and most affordable way, with every home and business in Australia able to connect to the nbn by 2020.
“Under a re-elected Coalition Government 40,000 homes and businesses in the electorate of Perth will see nbn construction underway in their neighbourhoods during the last quarter of this year,” Mr Quinn said.
Labor’s recently announced NBN policy will leave residents in Perth waiting longer and paying more for broadband.
“Labor’s NBN policy is to slow down the rollout because they will dig up everyone’s front garden and driveway – despite technologies being available that avoid this,” Minister Fifield said.
“Under Labor’s NBN plan, the full rollout will take at least two years longer to finish and cost around $8 billion more. Labor expects Perth residents to wait longer and pay more for their gold-plated NBN.”
Under the Coalition, the nbn rollout is on track, on budget and ahead of schedule and today, more than 265,000 premises in WA are able to connect to the nbn compared to just 13,060 able to connect and 6,721 active services under Labor. The network will have passed around 970,000 WA premises by the end of 2018.
“The Turnbull Coalition Government has got the nbn rollout back on track after years of waste and mismanagement under the previous Labor Government,” Mr Quinn said.
“At the time of the last election, there was not a single home or business in this electorate able to connect to the NBN. Today there are thousands, and thousands more are in the rollout schedule.”
“When the Coalition Government was elected in 2013, just 51,000 premises nationally were connected to the nbn. The Coalition is now connecting more that number every month with more than 61,000 premises connected to the nbn last month alone,” Minister Fifield said.
“The nbn is now available to more than 2.5 million homes and businesses in Australia and more than one million premises have signed up to the nbn.
“It is vitally important that the people of Perth aren’t left waiting longer and paying more for Labor’s empty promises of gold-plated broadband.”
Once construction is complete, home and business owners will simply need to contact a retail service provider to sign up to an nbn plan and install a new modem. A range of data plans and speed tiers are available to suit business and consumer needs.