13 May 2010
The Senate Committee examining the fibre deployment legislation currently before the federal parliament has handed down its report.
Not surprisingly, the government senators and the greens senator have supported the legislation, while the Coalition have withheld support at this time. In particular, Coalition senators were of the view that no steps should be taken to force developers to pay for the installation of fibre in greenfields estates.
The report also confirms that the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy expects that most states and territories will amend their planning laws to add fixed telecommunications to the list of utilities which have to be provided before a planning application is approved.
The report is available here.
The Urban Taskforce does not support the legislation in its current form. More information on our position is available here.
