Key NSW independent Tony Windsor has backed Labor's $43 billion national broadband network, criticising the opposition's cheaper alternative as a "retrograde policy" that would create a digital backwater in rural Australia. He believed Labor's national broadband network was the better of the two policies.
Windsor, who was briefed by senior officials from the Department of Broadband last week, said he had been convinced that "you do it once, you do it right, you do it with fibre".
The comments come as Mr Windsor and the other two rural independents, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter, remain locked in negotiations with both sides to determine who they will ultimately support: Prime Minister Julia Gillard or Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Two weeks after the election, Mr Katter and Mr Oakeshott were yesterday bunkered in their Parliament House offices in Canberra. Last night the two men were seen walking outside Parliament House in blustery conditions deep in animated conversation.
There are reports that Liberal and National Party members, along with the big mining monopolies, are mounting a campaign to bombard the independents' electorate offices with phone calls from voters threatening to dump them at the next election if they side with Labor.
Katter yesterday said "all sorts of tricky stuff" had been taking place to try to persuade him, although the calls were not a major issue.
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