Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I call on the government to keep its word with the people of Maldon. Maldon is 'Australia's first notable town'. Its streetscape is precious, and for 150 years it has been preserved. Maldon has also been marked down to receive fibre-to-the-node technology—something that the people of Maldon believe is unacceptable and inappropriate. I held a community meeting in September, with almost 100 locals calling on the government to meet with them to discuss fibre to the premises to be rolled out instead of fibre to the node. Their view is that the fibre-to-the-node technology with its ugly big boxes will affect the heritage overlay of the town. In the meeting the community affairs manager of NBN Co committed to meet with the community to hold a community consultation about what would be the most suitable and appropriate fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-premises technology to be rolled out. Don't get me wrong: Maldon wants the NBN but it wants to make sure that its technology is suitable and fits with the heritage overlay across the town. I call on the government to keep its promise to the people of Maldon. I call on the government to hold its Maldon community consultation meeting as it committed to do in September.