Opposition slams Ranges’ NBN woes

That was the view expressed by Bendigo Labor MP Lisa Chesters and federal opposition communications spokesman Jason Clare during a tour of the electorate last week.

Mr Clare met business owners at Woodend on Wednesday night, saying the federal government had failed voters, who had been promised high-speed national broadband by year’s end.

While the NBN is available in Kyneton and parts of Woodend, Riddells Creek and Romsey, residents and business owners at Gisborne and Lancefield, among others, have been left to deal with old technology.

Ms Chesters said she hears daily from people whose lives are being negatively affected.

‘‘Malcolm Turnbull promised that every home in Australia would have access to the NBN by the end of 2016. He has failed to deliver.’’

The latest NBN rollout plan schedules 2400 premises at Romsey and Lancefield, 1390 from Ashbourne to Woodend and 14,400 in Sunbury and Diggers Rest to have an NBN fibre-to-the-node connection by March this year.

A further 3030 premises in Bulla, Gisborne and Riddells Creek will have fixed wireless connections by January 2017.