Almost 5000 Footscray homes have been quietly struck off the National Broadband Network rollout plan.
An April update to the rollout schedule has removed 4800 Footscray premises previously listed as being at the ‘build preparation’ stage for fibre-optic cable.
Construction work was originally scheduled to begin by June 2016 but no new date has been set for a return to the preparation stage.
An NBN Co spokesman said a range of factors could contribute to delays once “on the ground” investigations got under way.
“Spending public money wisely on a project of the scale of the national broadband network means our rollout plans must be flexible enough to accommodate local factors,” he said.
“While there have been some changes to the rollout plan, work to make the NBN available to more than 13,000 premises in Footscray has already been completed or is under way.”
Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten slammed the delay, also criticising the $600 charge to connect newly built homes to the NBN.
“Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have managed to work together on one thing and that is destruction of the national broadband network,” he said.
“They have turned the rollout into a rollback, reverted from fibre-optic technology to archaic copper wire and set our nation’s communications back years.”
Mr Shorten said residents of Footscray and Melbourne’s west were “being dudded”.
“Just because we don’t live in a blue ribbon suburb of Sydney shouldn’t mean we miss out on this vital infrastructure,” he said.
Gellibrand MP Tim Watts said the community feared being stuck with “a second-rate NBN” that relied on the copper network.
“There is a real risk the Abbott government will create two classes of people in Melbourne’s west: those who get the real NBN and those who don’t.”
Residents and business operators can check NBN availability at their home or business by visiting www.nbnco.com.au.
