Labor is announcing movement on its promise to improve the national broadband network, with money in Tuesday’s budget to expand full-fibre access to 1.5m homes and businesses, mainly in outer city and regional areas.
Labor had been highly critical of the Coalition government’s decision to change the NBN from the planned fibre-to-the-premises model to a multi-technology mix model that used the existing and ageing copper network.
The new model enabled more homes to be connected to the NBN faster, but Australia’s internet speeds have languished as a result.
Improving the NBN became a key election commitment, with Labor using data-mapping it had insisted become part of Coalition 2020 legislation to help identify key areas to target in the hustings.
On Tuesday the government will announce the expansion of full-fibre access to 1.5m premises by 2025 with a $2.4bn equity investment over four years.
People who have copper connections will have the choice of having a full-fibre connection instead, which will deliver faster internet speeds, with regional Australia one of the first beneficiaries.
Communities in Cecil Hills, Yass and Cessnock are among those set to benefit from the 333,000 identified premises in New South Wales, while in Queensland the 240,000 premise roll out stretches from Bowen to Glasshouse Mountains.
About 215,000 premises have been identified in Victoria including in Bendigo, Gisborne and Clifton Springs and an additional 150,000 homes and businesses in Western Australia will be eligible for an upgrade, including in Margaret River, Denmark and Albany.
In South Australia Mount Gambier and Renmark are among the regions highlighted to share in 120,000 upgrades and in Tasmania, where 45,000 premises will receive the offer, the communities of Huonville and Old Beach make the list.
Upgrade works will also begin in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, where more than 9,000 additional connections will be made.
The Coalition had promised to add 2m premises at a cost of $2.9bn. Labor then matched that and expanded it by 1.5m homes, for an additional $2.4bn.
That includes more than 660,000 premises in regional Australia. The aim is for at least 10m premises to be able to access speeds of up to one gigabit per second by late 2025.
“Australians deserve the same access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet access regardless of whether they’re logging in from the bush or the ‘burbs,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement.
His communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said it was the start of a better-connected nation.
The NBN plan aims to stimulate the economy without adding to inflationary pressures, a key balance the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is attempting to strike as he hands down his first budget next week.
“Inflation, the rising cost of living, is probably the primary influence on the budget I will hand down on Tuesday. It affects our projected cost-of-living relief and how it targets our investment to areas that get the economy growing without adding to inflation,” Chalmers told the ABC.
