The Rudd Labor Government’s investment in the National Broadband Network will ensure Australia is one of the world’s leading digital economies by 2020.

The Prime Minister today released Labor’s broadband and digital economy paper, Building for the Future, which demonstrates how the NBN will underpin economic growth and jobs for the future. 
The NBN will connect every Australian home and business to superfast, affordable and reliable broadband, an investment in critical infrastructure which will meet our needs for decades to come.
This election is a choice between Federal Labor’s investment in our future and the Coalition’s determination to cut the NBN and rely on the communications technology of the past.
Labor understands that with the Chinese mining investment boom coming to an end we need to diversify Australia’s economy so we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.
The NBN is a central element of Federal Labor’s positive plans for the future.
Superfast broadband will open up new ways of working and new ways of doing business, allowing Australia to improve productivity and tap into new sources of growth beyond the mining boom.
It will transform all sectors of the economy, including mining, agriculture, manufacturing, financial services, retailing, education, healthcare and entertainment.
The broadband and digital economy paper shows how the NBN will deliver economic and social benefits by:

• Encouraging innovation in the same way electricity and transport networks transformed the economy in earlier generations.


• Overcoming Australia’s geographical distance from key global markets.


• Improving health and aged care through online medical consultations and management of health conditions.


• Connecting students in our schools, TAFEs and universities to the best teachers, resources and research materials here and abroad.


• Creating new opportunities for telework which will allow more people to work.

The paper also highlights the benefits of the NBN for regional Australia and small businesses.
Research shows small businesses using advanced digital technologies are twice as likely to increase their revenues and four times as likely to hire new workers.
The NBN is too important for our future to be jeopardised by Tony Abbott’s cuts.
The Coalition’s plan is to roll out a network which will be obsolete as soon as it is built because it relies on copper wire.
Federal Labor’s NBN will deliver broadband services over a superfast fibre network right to the customer’s premises.
This is a central part of the Rudd Labor Government’s plan to build and create new jobs for the future.
By contrast, the Coalition’s cuts will relegate Australia to relying on the outmoded communications technology of the past.
Labor’s broadband and digital economy paper, Building for the Future, is here: http://goo.gl/9o7AMY