Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that 5,000 homes in Murwillumbah will be the first town on the northern rivers to receive the National Broadband Network (NBN) through fibre-optic connection in 2015-16.
Ms Gillard was mobbed by supporters as she visited the Murwillumbah Community Centre with Richmond MP Justine Elliot to make the announcement.
Tweed mayor Barry Longland was at the community centre to meet Ms Gillard and hear the funding announcement.
The community centre opened late last year and was built using funds from the federal government, with assistance from the state government, Tweed Shire Council and the community.
Ms Gillard said the NBN rollout was an important development for the nation and would improve and expand health and education services to the regions as the NBN lifted the burden of distance faced by the regions.
‘I welcome this announcement that NBN’s fibre optic network is being made available to the people of Murwillumbah in the 2015/16 financial year,’ Cr Longland said.
‘We’ve already heard the news that fixed wireless is coming the more rural areas of the Tweed so today’s announcement is the icing on the cake.
‘As for local businesses, they need all the help they can get and will welcome greater access to high speed internet.’
Ms Gillard mingled and shared morning tea with Murwillumbah Community Centre staff and clients and locals, including former longstanding mayor Max Boyd and his wife Marguerite.
She then had an impromptu visit to the nearby netball courts to chat with local netballers.
Greetings from Armidale where the NBN is due to be completed by year’s end. Congratulations to Murwillumbah for getting on the NBN program….hope you end up getting it to the home and not just to Malcolm Turnbull’s node downgrade. Of course if John Howard had not privatised Telstra optical fibre would be a reality in many more places by now.