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Article: AUSTRALIAN GOVT SUBSIDIES MAY BE NEEDED FOR NEW BROADBAND NETWORK.
- Article from:
- AsiaPulse News
- Article date:
- June 7, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Asia Pulse Pty Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SYDNEY, June 7 Asia Pulse - The federal government might open the public purse to help ensure a new high-speed broadband network reaches rural and regional Australians, but it won't be throwing billions at it, communications minister Helen Coonan said Wednesday.
Senator Coonan said government subsidies may be needed to ensure a new network, built by private enterprise, reaches those areas.
But she slammed the federal opposition's proposal to inject as much $A4.7 billion ($US3.95 billion) into a network rollout, about half of which is to come from the Future Fund.
"The government will not be chucking $A5 billion ($US4.2 billion) of taxpayers' ...