[LINK] Fiona Nash, Rural Fraudband & Politics

[David Boxall]

Fiona Nash it was who, in reference to the regional parts of Labor's NBN 
plan, coined the term "Rural Fraudband". Sadly, the lady has proved to 
be as much a fraud as Malcolm Turnbull.

<https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1011628718966764&id=370245986438377>
> Today is International Rural Women’s Day. Today I promised myself, no 
> getting on the computer, no locking myself in the office. Today I was 
> going to catch up on the housework, clean the bombsite of my bedroom 
> and possibly get into the garden, letting the buzz of the native bees 
> and flower scents calm the tension that I’ve felt over the last couple 
> of weeks.
>
> But I’ve taken to my computer to write this blog, something I haven’t 
> done for a long time. Because I need to spew out the words that are 
> rattling in my head. Right now I feel sick. My stomach is churning, I 
> can’t get a proper lungful of air and I feel on the verge of tears. I 
> feel like someone has kicked me in the guts. And in fact, someone has 
> verbally kicked me in the guts. Someone, until recently I have 
> admired, supported from afar and looked up to. Senator Fiona Nash, 
> Deputy Leader of the National Party, Minister for Regional Communications.
>
> You see, the last couple of weeks (and on and off for two years) I 
> have spent many, many hours talking (on phone and internet if they 
> have it) to distraught, frustrated and despairing rural women. They 
> have watched their businesses go backwards; their kids flounder with 
> their education. These women have put any career advancements they may 
> have daydreamed about on the shelf, and packed their kids in the car 
> and driven several hours just to do a banking transaction or attend a 
> basic health appointment, things they should be able to do online.
>
> For plenty (albeit not all) rural women, their internet fails them. 
> Not just occasionally, but regularly, sometimes for weeks on end. Not 
> just like the massive Telstra outages that do happen, this is an 
> ongoing problem for many, week in, week out. Even, nay especially, if 
> they have NBNs swanky new SkyMuster, the technology that was touted as 
> a game changer. Although technically it could still be called a game 
> changer, but the game now looks to be lost by many rural women and 
> families.
>
> But that’s not what’s got me feeling so worked up. It’s the reaction 
> by those that have the means to fix it. Well more means than what I 
> do. Today in her International Rural Women’s Day media release, 
> Senator Nash claims: The roll-out of the nbn along with Skymuster 
> satellite will allow many rural women to start online businesses and 
> undertake online education via distance”.
>
> Only once before have I felt more let down by a politician on 
> something I’m so passionate about. Something that was so important to 
> my community. That was the time when Joe Ludwig suspended the Live 
> Export trade to Indonesia. I never expected Senator Nash to so 
> blatantly stick her head in the sand when it comes to rural families. 
> To put her own position before her constituents. To blindly follow the 
> party line, totally disregarding the plight of many.
>
> There is no doubt that Sky Muster could be a step in the right 
> direction and has been great for a lot of people. There have been some 
> great stories and results coming out about it. But it is still failing 
> so many others and will continue to do so with such limited data 
> allowance and largely unaffordable plans for many rural families. 
> Between 20-40 customers in an isolated region of Outback Queensland 
> lost internet for over two weeks recently, when SkyMuster failed them. 
> An outage deemed by nbn to be non-critical. To them perhaps, but not 
> to the customers who rely on internet to conduct their business, 
> educate their children and attend specialist appointments via skype. 
> Not to the community who relies on these rural businesses to function 
> normally.
>
> One woman spent 7 hours in one day (over several calls) on hold to her 
> internet Service Provider, trying to report a severe fault. Seven 
> hours of tying up her landline phone, her only other form of 
> communication to the outside world. Seven hours of being tied to the 
> range of that phone (and two-three hours on other days). Over two 
> weeks of no internet, two weeks of not being able to do any of her 
> business admin work, to teach her children their set school work, or 
> to do the community work that she undertakes. Forty kilometres to her 
> neighbours with working internet to check emails, or four and a half 
> hours to the closest regional town. It is still not fixed as I write, 
> pushing it to nearly three weeks. I could go on and on with so many 
> different but similar stories, but we’d be here for ages.
>
> We know you can’t fix it overnight Senator Nash, nor do we expect 
> that. We keep trying to highlight issues with you, we want to work 
> with you to fix this for our amazing rural women, their husbands and 
> their kids. Every time you blithely ignore the plight of so many rural 
> women in favour of pushing your own position forward, a little piece 
> of a rural woman dies somewhere. A little daydream of an online 
> business, of a career of her own. The little hope that they won’t have 
> to move to town to access basic internet, a service that the United 
> Nations declared a basic human right in 2013. The prayer that their 
> children won’t have to move away so soon. That little bit of belief 
> that you were going to stand up for us when we needed you the most. 
> One thing that will not die however is our willpower to be the voice 
> for those who need us to fight on their behalf to make people realise 
> that the #datadrought will continue to be an ongoing issue unless the 
> powers that be actually take the time to listen to the people suffring 
> it. Dented, frustrated and despairing, but never dead.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  My figures are just as good
                                 |  as any other figures.
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  I make them up myself, and they
                                 |  always give me innocent pleasure.
                                 |                     --HL Mencken