Williamstown residents are up in arms about “ghastly” green boxes being installed outside homes as part of the federal government’s national broadband network.
The nodes, which look like oversized metal lockers, house electrical equipment and are where internet delivery is switched from fibre to copper telephone lines.
Federal Gellibrand MP Tim Watts has started a petition to “say no to Malcolm Turnbull’s ugly nodes in Williamstown”.
“Williamstown has been dudded,” Mr Watts said. “Not only will speeds on Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate copper NBN be much slower than Labor’s real NBN; now these ugly green and grey boxes are being rolled out in front of people’s houses.
“It’s a matter of equity. Why should some suburbs get Labor’s real, high-speed NBN and others get Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate copper version?”
Williamstown resident Anna Lazaridis said she was distraught after receiving a flyer in her letterbox informing her a node would be placed on her nature strip in quiet Chandler Street. The metal box sits on a concrete slab and is 110 centimetres wide and 120 centimetres high, putting it nearly level with her picket fence.
The mother of a four-month-old boy said she was concerned about the potential health risk as well as the visual aesthetics.
“I really didn’t expect something so ghastly to be put out the front of my home,” Ms Lazaridis said.
“You would have thought with modern technology we could come up with something a little bit more discreet.
“It’s unsightly and, for me, it ruins the streetscape. It ruins the look of my home, of my neighbour’s home, of the whole street. Why can’t it be on a main road?”
Mr Turnbull’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
