[LINK] Minister threatens to use law to force people on NBN if states revolt

[Max Devlin]

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/minister-threatens-to-use-law-to-force-people--on-nbn-if-states-revolt-20101021-16uge.html

[Here we go again... Lets get ready to rumble]

[I propose a law to force Conroy out of politics]

Minister threatens to use law to force people on NBN if states revolt
Georgina Robinson and Ben Grubb
October 21, 2010 - 10:15AM



Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says he will wield federal law
as a weapon to force people on to the national broadband network (NBN)
if the states and territories don't make connections mandatory.

“We are working our way through the issues with the states and ... we
ultimately would consider if we can’t reach settlement, mandating it
through the federal parliament. But we prefer to be engaged with the
states,” Senator Conroy said, speaking to this website within
Parliament House yesterday.

He added that the federal government hadn’t “exhausted those
conversations yet”. He also said that the matter of a connection being
mandated was “not a new issue”.

“[We’ve been] having a conversation with the states for over twelve
months on this very issue,” he said. “This is not a new issue. Malcolm
Turnbull might have discovered it recently but it has actually been on
the agenda. And we’ve actually been saying for quite some considerable
time: as we disconnect the copper we’ll be connecting the fibre.”

Last Friday, this website reported that it would cost up to $300 to
connect to the NBN if a house or business didn’t consent to connecting
to it as it was rolled out initially.

Senator Conroy confirmed yesterday that a cost would be involved later
if you didn’t consent to connect to the network when it was optional
and free to connect to initially.

“If it remains optional and people ... sell the house and someone else
moves in, then it's like any other business where they say 'Hey, come
and connect me to this' -  then there’s a connection fee to get it
connected,” he said.

But if the network were to be mandatory to connect to then there would
be no charge at a later date. “The question of what happens if someone
decides not to take it up now and then we come back to do them and it
becomes mandated then I don’t believe there would be a charge,” he
said.

“But the key is to get it attached to the side of the house so the
costs are reduced for everybody involved."

On ABC's Lateline television program last night, presenter Tony Jones
also raised this website's report that it would cost up to $300 to
connect if you didn't connect initially. Jones said to Conroy: "You
might think your old fixed-line telephone is good enough and you don't
think you want an NBN computer access".

Senator Conroy said "some" had suggested that it could be $300, "but
that has not been a final decision made"