Australia's ambitious national broadband plan has helped shape political power in the country as independent politicians form alliances over issues related to its future. On August 21 Australia held its national elections, but the results did not define a clear political party as the leader. With the Labor Party, the Greens, and Liberal Party holding no major majority, the country was left in a deadlock ever since the election.
But with the national broadband plan as the main issue being kicked around, it took three independent candidates to break things up and give one particular party a slim majority. One of those independents sided with the Liberals, another cast his vote with Labor and - the third and deciding vote - MP Tony Windsor, also threw his support to the Labor Party.
Why did Windsor side with Labor? Because he knew that whoever was in power would ultimately decide the fate of the national broadband plan - and being a rural MP, it was a key issue in the election. Because of that, Windsor sided with Labor yesterday, giving the party a 76-74 majority in parliament and the power to form a new government.
Labor and the Greens both support the fiber-based broadband plan as a key to the country's future, and have pledged to support the AU$43 billion project.
"There’s an enormous opportunity for regional Australians to engage with the infrastructure of this century and to pass up that opportunity and miss the opportunity for millions of country Australians," Windsor said at a news conference today. I thought, was too good an opportunity to miss." His advisors have told him that "you do [broadband] once, you do it right, and you do it with fibre."
Source: Ars Technica
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Re: How Broadband Reshaped Politics in Australia
I would like to mention that even though the Greens side with Labor to help them form a minority government as well as the few independants who also made their decision.
It would be unlikely for the Green candidate to vote for the Australian Internet Filter in the lower house and even if that somehow manages to pass though the lower house the NBN has to also pass the upper house where the Greens could decide if it passes, and depending on their stance against the Internet Filter, Australia might well get the Fibre Optic Broadband network minus the Internet Filter that Labor Senator Steven Conroy wanted to include in the National Broadband Network.
Before this election, it was like Australian gamers were forced to vote for either a faster internet but with a mandatory content filter, or a slower internet with no mandatory filter...
With the NBN being supported but the greens wanting to abolish the Internet Filter that might come with it, and with a green also playing part of the lower house that Labor needs his support for, things might have gone the Australian Gamers way at least from the way it see it...
Heres hoping that in Australia us Gamers can have a fast Fibre Optic Broadband network so we could play our online games on without having to worry about any internet filters getting in the way of our fun on the internet.