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NBN petitioners target Turnbull, MPs

A group of NBN fibre-to-the-premises supporters are sending a 270,000-strong petition to MPs and NBN Co in a bid to increase pressure on Malcolm Turnbull.

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Source: AAP


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National Broadband Network (NBN) campaigners are delivering a petition with 270,000 signatures to MPs across the country as they fight for a fibre-to-the-premises plan.

The online petition is being presented to 145 federal parliamentarians and to NBN Co headquarters in Sydney on Tuesday.

The petitioners want the Abbott government to invest in the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) model over the cheaper, but much slower fibre-to-the-node option the coalition campaigned on at the election.

NBN Defender spokesman Alex Stewart said the group wanted to underscore widespread community support for a to-the-home broadband plan.

"We want (Communications Minister) Malcolm Turnbull to know he cannot ignore the voices of so many Australians, so we are taking our message to his parliamentary colleagues across the country and asking them to put pressure on him," he said in a statement.

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"This is the most critical infrastructure project facing Australia right now and the public wants to see an increase in the amount of fibre-to-the-premises being rolled out.

"There is no economic case for fibre-to-the-node."

Mr Turnbull has previously responded to the group's online petition by saying he won't walk away from one of the coalition's "most well debated, well understood and prominent policies".

The Queensland student who started the petition, Nick Paine, says the fact the petition has taken off shows there's "a real depth of feeling about this issue in the community".


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