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November 23, 2010
The Australian is having yet another go at the national broadband network (NBN) in its Labor should go back to basics on carbon and NBN. It is more on its standard line---'common sense says that the NBN is flawed and costly'--- and it says little that is new.
In fact, the editorial is so caught up in its own rhetoric that it fails to address the substantive policy issues that are currently being addressed by Parliament. Nor is there any indication in the editorial that they are even interested in these policy issues.
What we can infer from this is that The Australian is about politics not policy, and that it will use anything to attack the NBN as a way of undermining the Gillard Government. It is the publicity machine of the Coalition.
The editorial says:
The unseemly rush to a National Broadband Network says more about the government's political problems than about adding to national value. Indeed, the NBN is being forced through parliament this week not because we necessarily need it but because Julia Gillard does. Australians deserve more open discussion on the NBN and on the other issue preoccupying Canberra, the question of whether we need a cap-and-trade carbon market.Both policies have a common flaw: they offer a 100 per cent "solution" to challenges. The NBN is a Rolls-Royce answer to communication needs when a Holden might do just as well....Even if the NBN delivered a top-of-the-line service rather than becoming an expensive white elephant, as some fear, the government has failed to explain why $43bn should be spent on broadband rather than on schools, hospitals, indigenous housing or other essential infrastructure and services.
The editorial refers to the legislation before the Senate-- the government is going soft on privatisation or trying to cajole the crossbenchers into confidential briefings--but not once does it mention the actual content of the legislation----the structural separation of Telstra's retail and wholesale arms, which even Telstra supports and wants passed as quickly as possible.
Telstra is not even mentioned! The elephant in the room that has bedevilled the telecommunications industry for a decade of more is ignored. The editorial continues:
Good government is about setting the right priorities and making hard-headed decisions about funding, not stubbornly clinging to policies when they patently need review. The government is in a fix over the NBN: it is deeply committed to a project that is already being rolled out and its very existence relies on independents who backed Labor in large part because of the promise of the network. We are not troglodytes on broadband or climate change, but we will continue to challenge policy that is driven by politics rather than the public good.
Well the hard decisions have been made--Telstra's structural separation which the Liberals failed to do when they privatised Telstra---in order to ensure competition in the marketplace. There is nothing in the editorial about the need for increased competition in telecommunications.
The politics is everything and the lack of understanding of the issues around the NBN shown by old white men at The Australian indicates that the paper's default position is a Luddite one---let's smash these newfangled machines and stay with copper. The debate has moved on and the old white media men increasingly sound like a voice in the wilderness.
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Niki Savva in Smarten up, PM, and do not wear green in The Australian says that Gillard
No agenda? What is the NBN then? A Rudd leftover? It is a substantive reform that will make a difference to how Australian's work and play.