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CANBERRA - The federal coalition has announced it will guarantee in perpetuity $100 (NZ$123) million each and every year to be invested in rural and regional telecommunications.
The Rudd government had treated the bush with contempt by raiding billions of dollars set aside in the Communications Fund for rural and regional areas, opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin said.
The $2.4 billion fund was set up by the previous Howard government to future proof telecommunications in the bush.
But under laws which passed the federal parliament last week, the funds will now be transferred to the Building Australia Fund, which the government will use to help fund the national broadband network.
The people of rural and regional Australia were rightly concerned the money would be wasted, predominantly on duplicating broadband services in metropolitan areas, Senator Minchin said.
"Labor treats anybody who lives outside metropolitan Australia with disdain and always has," he said.
"As a result, a re-elected coalition government will, in perpetuity, set aside $100 million in the budget, each and every year for improvements to rural and regional telecommunications."
Labor had so far failed to deliver on any of its promises to improve telecommunications, Senator Minchin said.
The coalition's rural and regional broadband project, OPEL, would have delivered new high-speed services to under-served areas by the middle of next year, he said.
The $958 million Opel contract was axed by Labor when it came to power amid concerns the plan would not have served regional Australia well.
The Opel network was a 50-50 joint venture project undertaken by Optus and rural services firm Elders that was meant to deliver broadband access to an area of 638,000 square kilometres across the country in 2009.
- AAP
