Mr Howard announced the $50 million Metropolitan Broadband Blackspots program as part of the 2004 election campaign.
Senator Conroy says government bungling had resulted in $1.3 million being spent on administration costs while just $200,000 had been spent on actual broadband service improvements.
“This incompetent response to the serious problem of providing broadband access in metropolitan areas will be a further frustration to those Australians whom Senator Coonan enraged last year by claiming that ‘no one is complaining’ about broadband speeds in metropolitan Australia,” Senator Conroy said.
The Senate Estimates process had confirmed that Telstra had never participated in the Metropolitan Broadband Blackspots program, despite Communications Minister Helen Coonan’s assurances last year that the company was a participant in “filling these blackspots in metropolitan areas.”
“The Metropolitan Broadband Blackspots program was nothing more than a cheap vote grab hastily cobbed together during the 2004 election campaign. Australians without access to broadband deserve better than cynical election stunts from the Howard government,” Senator Conroy said.
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