The future of an ambitious project to connect almost all Australia’s inhabitants to high-speed internet, the largest infrastructure enterprise in the country’s history, is hanging on the outcome of an upcoming federal election.The Labor government and conservative Liberal-led opposition have vastly differing plans for the A$37.4bn (£22.7bn) National Broadband Network (NBN), potentially hurting some business stakeholders and opening the door to others, including China’s Huawei.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/16/australia-election-threatens-broadband-planAlso see:The NBN will survive the federal election
Whoever wins the election this year there will be an NBN. The difference between the ALP’s NBN plan and the Coalition’s plan comes down to who borrows the money for the last bit of fibre – the Government or you, writes Alan Kohler.It is easy to forget that the national broadband network is basically a bipartisan project that’s going pretty well, considering it was more or less impossible.Like issues such as whether black is a dark colour, or whether the sun rises in the east, the NBN has become the subject of hot debate these past three years of political madness, but both major parties are now in favour of it and it’s only running about three months behind.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-17/kohler-nbn-debate/4824756