Displaying items by tag: Tony Abbott

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has offered the three independent rural MPs who hold the key to forming the next federal government a detailed briefing from NBN Company chief executive Mike Quigley in response to their "keen interest" in broadband.

The so-called "Independents' Day" at the National Press Club provided few clues on who will form the next federal government and even fewer about what the nation's future broadband infrastructure might look like.

Tony Abbott has consigned the party of regional Australia - The Nationals - to the sidelines for the Coalition's negotiations with three rural independent MPs on forming Government, effectively cutting them out of any discussion on broadband in the bush.

The three rural independent MPs who hold the key to forming of the next Government of Australia - all of them ex-Nationals - will meet in Canberra late today to discuss areas of cooperation before negotiations start with the Prime Minister and Tony Abbott later this week.

With all eyes now shifting to independent MPs after an historic election that appears to have delivered a hung Parliament, the National Broadband Network and regional services is emerging as the key issue that will decide which party forms Government.

Opinion: After an election campaign in which starkly different plans for Australia's broadband future have provided a clear choice between Gillard Labor and the Coalition, on balance, the tech sector's best interests are served if the Government is returned.

Julia Gillard has used her last set-piece speech of the campaign to warn that Australia will lose jobs to offshore markets if it does not go ahead with the construction of a high-speed national broadband network.

It has been a long time coming, but the 2010 federal election has finally delivered a campaign in which technology has been a front and centre mainstream issue. And so unused to this kind of attention is the tech sector that many of us have found it hard to take.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pinned Labor's re-election hopes on a neatly woven narrative about the transformation of the Australian economy and delivery of government services that puts its National Broadband Network at the core of the final week of campaigning.

After a difficult start to the re-election campaign, Julia Gillard and Federal Labor are back on the front foot, and they can thank the stark policy choice being offered by the major parties on broadband for the leg-up.

With exquisite timing prime minister Julia Gillard has 'announced' an 'upgrade' to the capabilities of the NBN saying it will deliver not 100Mbps but 1Gbps to subscribers. The reality is it has been able to do that all along. NBN Co has simply clarified its rules.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has dismissed claims by the NBN Company that it will deliver broadband speeds of 1Gbps - ten times faster than the 100Mbps already promised - as an election ploy conjured by the Gillard government.

The broadband plan announced by the Coalition would be an economic disaster allowing Telstra to maintain its dominance and force the market to do what it wants, University of Technology Sydney academic Professor Robin Braun says.

The Australian tech sector awoke this morning bathed in the warmth of Coalition love after leader Tony Abbott unveiled ambitious communications and IT programs to underpin economic strength, productivity growth and wealth creation for generations to come'¦ No wait, hang on. That's not right.

Tony Smith must be a little miffed that shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey took it on himself to announce Coalition policy on the internet filter.

As election nervousness creeps into the telecommunications sector, the industry's peak lobby has called for all parties to commit to fundamental regulatory reforms to improve market competition and consumer outcomes.

With the national broadband network implementation study now publicly released, the Government has tabled its crucial telecommunications reform legislation for debate in the Senate next Wednesday, and called on the opposition to get out of the way of a vote.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has welcomed remarks made by Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey concerning proposed mandatory Internet filtering.