Getting fast broadband to the Geelong’s southern suburbs was used by opposition leader Tony Abbott to sell the coalition’s version of the NBN this week.
Mr Abbott and shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull visited Marcus Oldham College at Waurn Ponds to stress the point.
“This is an important educational institution and if this institution is to flourish, obviously it needs better broadband services and it needs them now.
“We will deliver fibre to an institution like this swiftly because our system is about using the right infrastructure to the right place.
“By putting fibre to some 60,000 nodes, as opposed to some 12 million households, we can get a real, effective National Broadband Network up and running much more quickly and much more affordably than Labor.
Mr Turnbull said while the government plan would bring fibre to vacant residences, it was by-passing the college with its “hundreds of students who need access to very fast broadband”.
Mr Turnbull said he expected to see “a shake-up” of the NBN board and management.
Liberal candidate for Corangamite Sarah Henderson said 90,000 people in Corangamite were being “left out in the cold”.
