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Key election issue

Staff ReporterComment News

I NOTICED in your article August 13 report headlined ‘Candidates put priorities on the table’, that Ken Wyatt is talking about improving broadband access in Hasluck, which he rightly points has a number of broadband blackout zones.

Luckily, I don’t live in a total blackout zone, and I find it ridiculous that anyone in Hasluck should have to in 2013. Nothing frustrates me more than trying to send large files over the internet or do video conferencing when the connection security and speed just isn’t up to it.

Therefore, this is definitely a key issue for me in this election.

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After comparing the policies, it seems to me that Mr Wyatt’s party is promoting a dud deal on broadband.

The way I see it, we have two options. The Labor option is a super-fast NBN with copper replaced by fibre, and with the connection delivered right to your home without any connection cost.

The Coalition option is an inferior broadband network with far slower speed and capacity, run largely on old copper, with the connection delivered only to a small percentage of homes.

The cost difference between the two is minimal despite Tony Abbott’s scare campaign.

The Coalition seems to me to be stuck in the past with its view about internet use in our personal lives and in the economy. It’s being used in new areas as an interactive tool for the delivery of services such as education, health and aged care.

Just think of the way internet use has expanded and changed over the past 10 years ” surely we can all imagine its use expanding and changing further over the next few decades.

If we can see that this is inevitable, why don’t we build a network that’s fit for purpose in the future instead of a half-hearted attempt that will need to be re-done in a decade?

Emma Clancy,

9 Viscount Court, Thornlie