Pauline Hanson has asked the Turnbull government to underwrite a plan to connect Norfolk Island to a new fibre optic cable stretching between Australia and New Zealand. She said the new $300m Hawaiki cable linking the United States, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, would pass within 100 km of Norfolk Island. She wants the government to back a proposed 90km fibre optic spur that would connect the island to that cable. “To exhaust the Norfolk Island capacity of SkyMuster using HD TV would take just 25 simultaneous users,” the document says. At the last census in 2011, Norfolk Island’s total population (excluding visitors or tourists) was 1,796.

Source: The Guardian October 27, 2016 20:44 UTC