EXPRESS The
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Locally owned and proudly independent
Next stop: The finals Mareeba Golf Club’s A-Grade team players Michael France, Darrin Hastie, Steve Cadorin, Paul O’Shea, Rob Pitt and Karl Krauss will take on juggernauts Cairns Golf Club this weekend in Atherton after pipping Half Moon Bay at the Far North Queensland League Pennants semi-finals at Mareeba. Not pictured: Team members Lui Dezen and Anthony Mete.
See Page 35 for details.
No broadband? By Ryan Groube
M
areeba is no longer on a three-year rollout plan for the National Broadband Network (NBN). Details of NBN Co’s construction plan have been removed from the Commonwealth Government-owned business’ website “pending the introduction of new Government policy”. Previously, the website had shown construction of high-speed broadband infrastructure was due to begin in Mareeba in 2016. Now it simply lists rollout details as ‘not currently available’.
It comes amid a 60-day review of NBN Co’s performance with a focus on different ways of delivering broadband to homes and businesses, including options that are cheaper but deliver slower download speeds. Lobby groups from across the Far North have vowed to do everything they can to reinstate Mareeba to the rollout list but say they need the help of the public. The Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC) was the key agency in securing Mareeba’s place on the original rollout plan after having a 79-page submission accepted
by NBN Co. FNQROC chief executive Darlene Irvine said the organisation had engaged fellow lobby group Advance Cairns to keep the far north on the Government’s broadband agenda. A representative from Advance Cairns has met with Queensland’s Minister for Information Technology Ian Walker who asked for a briefing document on the need for reliable and high-speed communications in the far north. “We have an undertaking from Mr Walker that he will raise the matter with [Federal Communications Minister] Malcolm Turnbull,” Ms Irvine
said. “Advance Cairns will be driving this but their efforts will be helped if we get support from the public. “We don’t need table thumping, that doesn’t work. What we need is the community to voice their concerns using real scenarios about opportunities will be lost if this is taken from us.” Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has “grievous concerns” that the removal of Mareeba from the list meant the national broadband would not be rolled out at all in the town. “If you aren’t on a timeline it is not going to get done,” he said. Continued page 4
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