‘Toxic MP’ in NBN shortfall

By Cherie Donnellan
LABOR MP Darren Cheeseman’s “reckless politicking” has cost thousands of Geelong households a place in Australia’s broadband rollout, according to a Liberal Senator.
Michael Ronaldson lashed Mr Cheeseman as an “ineffective representative for the people of Corangamite”.
“The relationship between Darren Cheeseman and his colleagues is so toxic that Corangamite residents will now pay the price,” Mr Ronaldson said.
Mr Cheeseman made national headlines in February when he dropped his support for Julia Gillard as Prime Minister to instead publicly support Kevin Rudd’s eventually unsuccessful challenge.
NBN Co last week announced plans to connect suburbs and towns around the region to the network except for households within Corangamite’s 3216 postcode, including Belmont, Highton, Grovedale, Marshall and Waurn Ponds.
Mr Cheeseman said Mr Ronaldson had “clearly not looked at the facts” on the next network rollout in the region.
“We’ve secured the NBN rollout for places including Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Torquay and Jan Juc among others,” Mr Cheeseman said.
“The Liberal party has planned that if they’re elected to government in 2013 they will knock off the NBN scheme. The community will have a very clear choice: if they want high-speed internet they will need to support Labor.”
Mr Cheeseman said he was also successful in securing “hundreds of millions of dollars” for other projects in Corangamite.
“We’ve delivered strong projects to this region and we will continue to campaign and deliver our projects.
“We’ve delivered more in the past four years to this region than what the Liberal party has delivered in decades.”
“If Michael Ronaldson ever has anything positive to say about Corangamite I’ll buy him a beer.”