NBN Rolls Out Labor's 'Map for Re-Election'

THE rollout of Labor's $36 billion National Broadband Network in Brisbane is largely focused on Labor-held seats, with Coalition electorates in the area all but ignored by the Gillard government's telecommunications flagship. 

Rollout maps published on the NBN Co's website covering the next three years show intense activity in Labor seats such as Lilley, Griffith and Rankin, with little building in Coalition electorates, sparking opposition claims the government is using the rollout to protect its own seats in next year's federal election.

The latest opinion polling and the landslide results of the Queensland state election suggest Labor would lose all but a handful of federal seats in the state if an election were held today. Even senior government members such as Wayne Swan and Trade Minister Craig Emerson, whose seats are in Brisbane, are not considered safe.

The NBN Co maps reveal that by the time the next election is due late next year, the rollout would have started across most of the Treasurer's electorate of Lilley. The rollout is expected to start across most of Dr Emerson's electorate within three years, with the seats of Kevin Rudd (Griffith) and Bernie Ripoll (Oxley) also lined up for early stages of the NBN while neighbouring Coalition seats will see almost no activity for at least three years.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy yesterday denied political pork-barrelling, saying the focus on Labor seats in Brisbane was caused by the fact that the rollout had to begin at main exchanges - or points of interconnect (POIs) - and that in Brisbane most of these were in Labor seats.
He said that outside of Brisbane POIs were located in Coalition-held seats also featuring heavy NBN rollout work.

However, Liberal MP Andrew Laming, whose seat of Bowman will see little NBN activity, said Labor was servicing its own seats, particularly those of ministers, while ignoring neighbouring Coalition electorates.

"The cold, hard reality in Brisbane is that households in Labor seats are eight times more likely to get the NBN than those in Coalition seats," Dr Laming said. "Worse, the odds are around 50 per cent better if your Labor MP is a minister. "This is a save-the-political-furniture strategy. They are not targeting marginal seats here. They are just trying to survive."

Senator Conroy said the pattern of the rollout was designed to begin at POIs and then fan out so the network could be progressively switched on as work was completed. "The rollout of the NBN is determined by the NBN Co and is based on a range of engineering and geographical criteria," he said. "The POI sites in Brisbane mirror the pattern shown on the NBN Co maps."

The Brisbane POIs were located in Ipswich, Woolloongabba, Goodna, Aspley, Bundamba, Camp Hill, Petrie, Slacks Creek, Salisbury, Eight Mile Plains and Chermside.

"It's simply laughable for the opposition to be complaining about the NBN rollout schedule given their plans to demolish it if they are elected," Senator Conroy said. "The message cannot be more clear: under Labor, Australians will have access to world-class technology under the NBN; under the Coalition the NBN will be demolished and Australians will be stuck with their current inferior broadband that will hold this nation back."

Brisbane businessman Trent Bruce, who runs Brisbane North Raine & Horne Commercial real estate agency, said he was concerned about the rollout. The NBN map shows homes and businesses at the northern end of Webster Road in Mr Swan's electorate of Lilley should be able to connect within three years, while those at the southern end in the Liberal-held seat of Brisbane, including Mr Bruce, will probably miss out on connection within three years.

"I think every single business would want it," Mr Trent told The Australian. "We want to be at the top of our game across the board. It is the way of the future and if we're not at the top we'll lose people."

But Mr Bruce said he would not comment on any political link for the NBN rollout. "I don't want to get political," he said.

Just 6km north of Raine & Horne in Aspley, Peter Thompson's business, Queensland Computer Station, can expect the NBN within one to three years.

"We've just started getting into application development for Apple products, so it'll definitely be an advantage to download information from Apple faster," Mr Thompson said.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the Queensland rollout was fast becoming "the largest pork barrel" in Australian political history. "Maps released last month reveal an eerie concordance with federal electoral boundaries in the Brisbane metropolitan area," Mr Turnbull said.

When The Australian asked the NBN Co for comment, a spokeswoman pointed to remarks by chief executive Mike Quigley last month in which he named eight factors affecting planning, including: the government's demand for equity between regional and metropolitan areas; availability of infrastructure from Telstra; priority to growth corridors likely to contain high numbers of greenfields sites; efficient sequencing; construction effects on communities; and serving of universities.