21 June 2010
The Urban Taskforce today welcomed the Federal Governments decision to abandon plans to require new urban development projects to help cover the costs of the broadband network.
Developers and property owners (on their own property) will only be required to cover the costs of trenching and ducting. NBN Co will cover the other costs of installing fibre infrastructure in the development, including backhaul.
The Taskforce’s chief executive, Aaron Gadiel, said the Federal Government had clearly been listening to the urban development industry over the past year.
“There’s been a year-long debate about whether or not development projects should be forced to carry the cost of fibre and network infrastructure, Mr Gadiel said.
“Under the original proposal existing residents and businesses would have benefited from a taxpayer funded rollout of a national broadband network, while new home buyers and occupants of business premises had to pay twice.
“They would have paid once through their general taxes and again through embedded costs in the price of their newly developed properties.
“Developers have always been willing to play their part in supporting high-speed internet access for Australia, but this role does need to be limited to trenching and ducting on a development site.
“Anything more would have impacted on the supply of new homes and business premises.
“This is a win for housing affordability and a commonsense decision that will benefit new home buyers.”
We congratulate the Federal Government for taking this decision and we look forward to discussing the details of these arrangements with them.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
