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Labor diary: the economic killer fact of this campaign

Richard Marles

by Richard Marles

13 Aug 05:40am

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Filed under: Election 2010, Labor Diary, Politics

74 comments

The last few weeks have clearly demonstrated the dignity of our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Not leaving a Mark: That photo one more time / AAP

A photo from last Saturday afternoon published by the Australian captured it all. On the one hand an intimidating hulk of a man growling like a menacing dog and on the other a smiling and warm PM handling a most difficult situation.

It had been a testing day. It has been a testing campaign. But through it all Julia has kept putting one foot in front of the other explaining Labor’s economic plans for the country, all the while retaining that smile, that sense of calm and that indefatigable sense of dignity.

We saw it again on Q&A. Faced with questions about her private life she demonstrated humour. Faced with questions about public policy she demonstrated intelligence. And faced with questions about the economy she demonstrated an economic plan. Julia Gillard will ensure the budget is put back in the black in just three years time. For Labor this election has not been a spendathon.

What Labor people have known for years is now being privately acknowledged by Liberal insiders: Julia Gillard is a class act.

To be sure Tony Abbott has intelligence. But the one thing Tony doesn’t have is an economic plan.

As much as this week has been about Julia’s poise and dignity it has also been about Tony and the Coalition’s economic disarray.

Tony Abbott and public finance go together like Kyle Sandilands and discretion.

As the Treasurer’s debate ensued on Monday it became apparent that Tony and his Shadow Treasurer had a $7billion difference over the size of the Coalition’s pork barrel which is rolling around the country.

To the rescue came Andrew Robb filling his teammates with the same sense of confidence experienced by General Custer’s troops at Little Bighorn.

In a midnight press release aimed as diverting attention from the $7billion discrepancy, Andrew managed to list 211 supposedly uncosted items all of which were actually contained and paid for in this year’s budget. For good measure he misplaced a decimal point to the tune of $13.5million: the most expensive decimal point of the campaign.

Tony Abbott then came out and used the typo defence – fair enough. Anyone can make a typo. The problem is that not anyone can run the country. Certainly Tony Abbott can’t.

Each day Labor soberly declares its expenditure and savings. All of these costings have been submitted to the Treasury under the Charter of Budget Honesty. Each day we publish the running total so that Julia’s very first pledge of this campaign – that not a single dollar will be added to the budget bottom line – can be verified.

By contrast Tony and the Coalition have wandered around the country with wads of cash falling out of their briefcases. They promise fast and loose, often on the never never. In my neck of the woods in Geelong the Opposition has been making promises paid over two electoral cycles – beyond the forward estimates – so that fulfilment of the promise actually requires that you elect them twice.

But whatever they promise the one thing they never do is submit their costings to Treasury under the Charter of Budget Honesty.

That only 1.5% of the near $27billion worth of Coalition promises has actually been submitted to Treasury now stands as the killer fact of this election.

The excuses for failing to submit these costings would make a truant schoolboy blush. The dog has certainly eaten the Opposition’s homework.

Completing the economic shambles has been the Coalition’s train wreck of a policy on broadband. Rather than seeing this as the economic backbone of the 21st Century, Tony sees it as something fun for the kids: “it’s about downloading movies, downloading songs, all that kind of thing that requires bandwidth”.

Tony Abbott has no sense of how the NBN will revolutionise health care or provide for the best access to international markets for small business in regional Australia. Indeed Tony doesn’t even understand the basics of broadband.

The result is a Coalition policy which actually plays down the role of fibre optics and in the face of space age technology amounts to little more than purchasing the nation a new horse for its cart.

So as we conclude week 4 we have a PM who has weathered the storm full of poise and with an economic plan for the country, and Tony Abbott putting on display for all Australians what John Hewson had been telling us for years: the man is innumerate.

And that’s a worry for the Opposition as the key issue of the election becomes crystal clear. As James Carville once said, it is all about the economy, stupid.

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74 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Jenny says:

      06:50am | 13/08/10

      The Liberal Party is going to have their Policies independently audited. I wonder who they will engage, they will need someone they can trust.  For the electorates sake I hope it isn’t the team who audited the failed Westpoint Corporation.

      Reply

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      01:17pm | 13/08/10

      I wonder why there is no disclaimer above this peice, as there is with Sohpie’s… c’mon The Punch, clean it up, this bloke is an ALP representative, and you’re not divulging this fact… simple oversight I’m sure, but it needs to be fixed.

    • Paul C says:

      02:26pm | 13/08/10

      Brad of Bentleigh, the title of the piece starts with ‘Labor Diary’. That should give readers with half a brain a hint that it’s a Labor article.

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      05:32pm | 13/08/10

      Check out the bold disclaimer above Sophie’s bit. It isually appears above Richard’s too,
      Anyone with half a brain could see that tongue laugh

    • dead to me says:

      06:58am | 13/08/10

      Gillard and dignity in the same sentence? Julia Gillard is a class act? Dignity would come with the truth as to what and why she and the unions really did to get Rudd out. Explaining her role in the government that ‘lost its way’. Health care? I’m an average Australian who hasn’t done well under this Labor government and I’m not alone.

      Reply

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      01:24pm | 13/08/10

      Indeueed… I also love how he barrates the Libs for announcing policy funded through the forward estimates, bad if the libs do it, great if labor do it… the rank hypocracy of this peice is amazing.
      Funny that the 2007 election was fought on things like the NBN, and Work Choices… here we are, 3 years later, the ALP are still banging on about NBN and Work Choices, and some how, have the temerity to suggest that the conservatives are poor economic mangers… it really is laughable, and they really must assume the voters are completely devoid of any intelligent thought if they think they’ll get away with those lies.

    • Rob r Charteris says:

      07:14am | 13/08/10

      Totally agree Richard, with all the crap that has been thrown at Julia over the last two weeks she has held her head up high and got on with the campaign with class and courage. Wasn’t it rAbbott who first came out and said he had to tax big business to pay for his paid maternity leave because the government has spent up large and that there was no funds left??? Now he has nearly $30 billion out there in election promises, which he is refusing to have treasury cost. For all we know it was probably Robb or Hockey that leaked the document. And gee how funny it looked to see them squirm like stuck pigs with $800 million just on one policy!!!! One can only imagine what sort of blowouts rAbbott is proposing just go back and look at his record. He would be lucky if any one of them didn’t exceed the 6% of Julia’s BER program. Like his broadband solution we’ll be going backwards and into unmanageable debt. And like the white elephant that rAbbott claims the NBN will be, what will happen to all these programs he is going to cut or stop or replace that are halfway those the process??? I think we’re going to have many many white elephants under rAbbott.

      Reply

    • TimB says:

      08:05am | 13/08/10

      Rob do you ever think before you post? Why would the Libs leak their own documents? What possible reason?!

      You attack Abbott’s parental leave levy but ignore the fact that it’s only temporary. Meanwhile you ignore Labor’s mining tax and ETS which will have a far greater impact on businesses. Explain the contradiction.

      And going backwards into “unmanageable debt”?...It’s LABOR who took us into debt. Like they always do. It’s the Liberals who get us out. History is not on your side.

      And the NBN will be a white elephant as far as I’m concerned. Just look at this from Richard:

      “Tony Abbott has no sense of how the NBN will revolutionise health care or provide for the best access to international markets for small business in regional Australia.”

      What small buisiness in regional Australia needs to access international markets?! And for the few that might (perhaps some sort of online home produce business) why can’t they do that with the internet available? 100 mbps is overkill.

    • Oxbridge says:

      09:06am | 13/08/10

      @TimB
      Peter Costello instituted the rule that all election promises be submitted to Treasury to be costed. Now the Libs don’t like it because their inept proposals are scrutinised and found to be lacking.

      The mining tax was requested by the miners as part of the Henry Tax Review. It is to take place of the disjointed state royalty system. The miners SHOULD pay for our resources and this money SHOULD be used to benefit the community rather than miners getting rich off our resources.

      Labor’s debt was a necessary response to the GFC. The size of the debt was set by Treasury. It will be paid off quickly and is no more than 6% of GDP (paltry compared to countries with debt of 100% of GDP). If it were up to the Libs they would have let things crumble around us and we’d all be out of a job.

      The NBN is one of the most significant and necessary projects this country needs to undertake.

      If it were up to the modern Liberal party the Snowy River Hydroelectric scheme would have been a kiddy pool with a couple of AA batteries thrown in because they wanted to save costs. A completely useless idea. We need to be building our future and making sure we can remain competitive and adaptable for the next 100 years. Not piecemeal and useless schemes that weren’t even good enough 10 years ago.

    • Jake says:

      09:30am | 13/08/10

      TimB,

      Are you that naive?

      Someone in the Labour party has been leaking documents, perhaps to undermine the leader?

      ‘What possible reason?  Their own leadership aspirations, to get even for past acts.

      What makes you think that a political party with all its factions, are peaceful loving hippies???

    • Freeman says:

      10:00am | 13/08/10

      TimB
      he also ignores the fact that the libs would drop company tax to 28.5%

    • TimB says:

      11:18am | 13/08/10

      @ Oxbridge- You say the NBN is necessary. I keep challenging people to show me why.  To date no-one has answered my question: What will the NBN do at 100mbps that we can’t do at the current speeds available? This is why a cost-benefit analyisis is needed, one which hasn’t been done.

      The mining tax argument has been done to death. If there’s a problem with the royalty system, fix it at state level. The only reason Labor even looked at this was because they needed someone to pay off the massive bill they racked up on the national credit card.

      And no the spending wasn’t needed because much of it was wasted. The BER money didnt even come into play until the threat of recession had long passed us. The same effect could have been achieved for far less money had Labor been smart about it.

      Debt is debt. . Just think of all the services that could have been fundd with the millions of dollars we now have to shell out in interest payments.
      Instead you fob it off with a furphy about other countries being worse off. I don’t care what state they’re in. I care about this country. Just because other countries can’t manage their finances is no excuse for Labor to sink to the same level.

      @ Jake…I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant to type Liberal. (Either that or you need to read what I wrote again.) Why would someone with leadership asperations deliberately damage their own side’s election chances? Your theory defies logic.

    • Oxbridge says:

      01:18pm | 13/08/10

      TimB

      “What will the NBN do at 100mbps that we can’t do at the current speeds available?”

      Do things much faster.

      Plus, do things we can’t do now. For example, you’re a doctor in an emergency ward trying to figure out what is wrong with a patient. Their medical records can be stored online and accessed in less than a minute. This can’t be done now.

      Also, you can’t do a CBA if you can’t cost benefits that can’t currently be accounted for because they don’t exist due to current capacity constraints.

      As somone else said, there would have been no space program of Snowy River Scheme if we had a bunch pf penny-pinching beancounters in charge.

      “If there’s a problem with the royalty system, fix it at state level.”

      Why have a bunch of useless state taxes anyway. It’s inefficient. That’s why the miners asked for a federal system as part of the Henry Tax Review. The states should be abolished. They are anachronistic.

      “And no the spending wasn’t needed because much of it was wasted.”

      Yes, it was. All credible economic commentators have said this. Read Steiglitz, World Bank, RBA and IMF statements. It’s simple economic. When the economy goes down the government can step in and fill the void and prevent the economy from going under. This saves jobs and businesses and prevents something from being far worse.

      Audit reports have shown such a small amount of “wastage” which is only due to sheisters ripping off the system.

      Please educate yourself with even an elementary understanding of economics before you bother saying such things. It depresses me that people like you are allowed to vote.

    • Sirro says:

      04:57pm | 13/08/10

      Ox….

      Surely you jest about any knowledge of economics or are you happy simply to say whatever you need to in order to win your point. I guess thats how the Labor Party operates as we have seen from Mr Swan (another Labor fool who knows zippo about the economy).

      How is it possible to spend 43 Bio dollars of taxpayers money without doing any real analysis on the benefits of the expenditure? It simply does not.

      Why is it so much more advantageous to do things so much quicker?? You simply cant argue that point as no anaylsis has been done to prove that it truely is needed. All we are getting told is that it IS needed.

      So I get to pay, my children (and yours) get to pay for something where we have no real idea as to what benefit the economy will get. Its just a leap of faith. A trust in Stephen and Julia scenario.

      Well Kevin 07 got that leap of faith from voters and pretty much wasted the lot.

      I dont think Labor and Gillard will get the chance again.

      And although I disagree with you and think you are pretty stupid, Im happy that you are entitled to vote.

    • Tony of Poorakistan says:

      07:18am | 13/08/10

      Um. It wasn’t a liberal Government that gave us the record $96Billion black hole; that was the Hawke-Keating Labor Governments. It took Australia’s greatest ever Treasurer 11 years to pay that off and the current Labor Government have promptly decided to try for the record themselves. On their current schedule, they will piss that in if we give them another term.

      Historically, Labor Governments have always had trouble balancing the chequebook and subsequent Liberal Governments have had to clean up the mess.

      Yet, you expect us to believe that this financially reckless Government (pink batts, BER, plasma bonuses to dead people and overseas residents) can be the first fiscally responsible Labor Government?

      Sorry, don’t believe you.

      Reply

    • Rose says:

      09:30am | 13/08/10

      Actually, I only ever recall Keating being internationally recognized as the world’s greatest treasurer. Howard and Keating squandered billions with nothing to show for it. Rudd and Gillard at least will be able to point to infrastructure improvements. Whatever problems that occurred with school halls and insulation, the huge majority of projects were very successful, with only a small percentage being problematic.

    • The Scarlet Pimpernel says:

      10:35am | 13/08/10

      I’ve read that interim report, Rose, and the problems with BER were not small. It was an appalling amount of money to waste.

      Similarly, whilst the burnt houses can be replaced, what price do you put on the lives of those killed through Labor’s lack of oversight of the pink batt disaster? And what of houses that have not burnt down yet, but will?

      That the deficit is due to the GFC is debatable - there are many experts who say that our exposure was minimal. Our banks were not in that market, the Chinese were still buying everything we could dig out of the ground and (courtesy of the previous Liberal Government) we had low unemployment and money stashed away.

      I think Labor simply like pork-barreling and spending.

      PS. Keating wasn’t recognised as the world’s greatest treasurer by anyone but Keating - that was a self-awarded title. Hardly surprising for a bloke with an ego the size of a small planet, but it was Keating himself who said it.

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      01:33pm | 13/08/10

      Rose, I’d be very interested to see this list of succesful policies…
      quote: “Rudd and Gillard at least will be able to point to infrastructure improvements. Whatever problems that occurred with school halls and insulation, the huge majority of projects were very successful, with only a small percentage being problematic”.

      Please, what projects were these? I’m tipping for every one you can come up with, I can come up with at least two that were either dumped, or complete disasters.

      I’ll give you a head start, good policy (completed) number 1: My School Web Site… I can’t think of any others though, so it’s over to you.

    • JDiamon says:

      07:32am | 13/08/10

      This confrontation is evidence of the hate and loathing within the factions and the smarmy way Gillard handled the hulking bully shows how at home she is in gutter politics. Watch her campaign play the man not the ball in the last two weeks. The fear and loathing of the faceless powerbrokers will come to the fore. They will say anything and do nothing. That is their record for the past three years. Just look at population policy. Expand Australia’s population to 36M, but not invest in infrastructure to cope with it. The traffic snarls, the inflated house prices, the growing unemployment and untrained labor force, the urbanisation of our food bowls, these are all policies of the Rudd/Gillard/Swann regime.

      Reply

    • Oxbridge says:

      10:57am | 13/08/10

      So population wasn’t a problem and these issues weren’t present before 2007?

      What did Howard do for infrastructure, traffic snarls, house prices, unemployment, training (work for the dole is not training, neither is less money for universities) and urbanisation of food boals?

      Answer = nothing

    • Paul C says:

      02:24pm | 13/08/10

      So the Coalition’s bleating on about Gillard being unmarried and having no children and, therefore, being unable to understand the needs of families, that was playing the ball was it?

    • Richard says:

      06:26pm | 13/08/10

      Somehow the furphy mangaged to sneak into public perception that Labor governments actually build MORE infrastructure than Liberal governments. Hrmm I guess thats why after basically 20 straight years of Labor government in Queensland no-one is allowed to have longer than 4 minute showers, everyone must spend a minimum of 1 hour in traffic each day and the cost of electricity keeps going up and up. Yeah jeez thank God we had a Labor in power for basically 2 decades to build infrastructure..

    • Super D says:

      07:43am | 13/08/10

      The NBN is the biggest waste of money ever proposed by an Australian government.  How can you be sure of this?  Simply by the fact that the government has never released a cost benefit analysis.  You know that if they could even make it close to a good business case the numbers would be out there.  Their absence demonstartes that they can’t and they know that they can’t.

      Healthcare is often promoted as one of the benefits but I cannot see how fibre to the home could possibly help.  Fibre to hospitals and medical centres would help xrays be emailed around but 100Mbps is nowhere near necessary for that.  Does the government envisage people stripping down to their underwear and parading in front of a webcam will substitue for a physicians examination?  Will the government be providing everyone with a webcam and a computer - and in the case of the elderly and infirm someone to come around and work it?

      The NBN is best described as Nonsense, Bloody Nonsense.

      Reply

    • DDavis says:

      09:25am | 13/08/10

      I doubt many professionals in the IT industry that actually know what they’re talking about would agree with you.

      Our current broadband is crippled and constrained. Imagine Australia was a country with no highways, no freeways, where all the cities are connected through back roads, this is the current state of affairs with respect to current internet services.  It is inherently limited because it’s a cobbled together network using decrepit infrastructure.

      The direction in which software development is moving intimately ties network connections to your computer. Network bandwidth and reliability is becoming ever more critical and this evolution is going to happen regardless of our networks capability or not. If we don’t have the reliability and capacity the world will simply leave us behind as if we’re some third world state.

      The improvements the NBN offers will lead to massive innovation, improvements in efficiency and productivity.  Australia will lead the IT world for once instead of trailing years behind. It will become as important and critical to our daily lives as the mobile phone and it will undoubtedly provide a generous return to taxpayers probably well in excess of current expectations.

      The NBN is one of the best things any government has ever done in this country and in ten years you’ll agree.

    • Sherlock says:

      09:28am | 13/08/10

      Too right Super D.

      Every Australian no matter who they vote for should be angry that this government is about to spend $42 billion (which will end up being $100 billion) without allocating a fraction of 1% of that money to completing a cost benefit analysis.

      The reason that they won’t do one is that they know what the result will be. It will expose this NBN for what it is. The worlds biggest ever pork barrel.

      Then, 9 days before an election, we’re suddenly told that the speeds on this project, that was originally planned on the beck of an envelope to cover the original broadband policy failure, won’t be 100mbs but they’ll actually be ten times that.

      What fortuitous timing it was to discover that little speck of information. Talk about treating the electorate with total contempt. It’s obvious that the ALP think we’re all stupid.

      Looking forward to surfing the web at 1gig or even 100mbs? Really? Where do you do most of your surfing? I do 90% of mine connecting to overseas based websites. In fact even a lot of your com.au sites are located on overseas servers.

      Can someone please point out to me where the NBN plans extend to new overseas pipes? I can connect to local servers at 18mbs. On overseas connections I’m overjoyed when I can get 2mbs.

      Increased capacity leads to even more traffic.

    • Duff says:

      09:55am | 13/08/10

      Super D, do you think the Apollo Space Programme would have survived a cost benefit analysis?

    • The Scarlet Pimpernel says:

      10:01am | 13/08/10

      I’ve read all I can find on this subject, both in mainstream media and on various technology sites.

      If we could afford it, I’d have said let’s go the whole hog upfront and build Labor’s version. Sadly, after a mere two and a bit years under Rudd and Gillard, we as a country no longer have that sort of money.

      The Liberal version is an excellent compromise. I’m surprised that they haven’t leveraged the fact that it can be turned into the full-blown version down the track, when we have a financially responsible Government.

      They intend to build all the trunk routes in much the same way as Labor, but the big differenece is they won’t be digging trenches down every country laneway and that’s where the huge savings come in.

      Major country centres (and certainly metropolitan areas) will still have access to high speed fixed line internet of the order of 30-100Mbps. I was surprised to find that many ‘tech-heads’ are actually in favour of wireless even in the city and that many of them, if given Labor’s solution, will promptly bung their own wireless router at the end of the line at their own cost.

      At this point in time, despite my belief that Labor’s solution is more complete, I say that the Liberal solution is right for this moment in time.

      Oh, and as for Gillard and Conroy promising gigabit connections? There isn’t an affordable router that will manage it. Commercial enterprises pay companies like Cisco thousands of dollars for each router that can handle that sort of speed. Apparently, the companies that are trialling fibre to the home at Point Cook in Victoria (Internode being one) are finding it difficult to recommend a home type router that will allow 100Mbps, never mind 1000. And this comes direct from people who are working in that area and contribute to sites like http://www.whirlpool.net.au.

    • DDavis says:

      10:44am | 13/08/10

      Mr Pimpernel, you don’t really know what you’re talking about. You’re trying to compare a semi-trailer with a ute. Some routers are more expensive than others because of the volume of requests and the standard of reliability, security and flexibility they require. Industrial strength routers like many Cisco routers command a premium price, domestic routers are much cheaper because they are not intended to be used in server scenarios.

      Even if we accept that Gigabit routers are expensive, it doesn’t mean they will stay that way. Technology depreciates rapidly, I paid more for a 56k modem a little over ten years ago that for my current 100mb router. Gigabit routers will be dirt cheap by the time the NBN gets to your neighborhood.

      Oh, also it’s not problems with 100mb routers that limit internet speeds, it’s the network.  My 100mb router works fine copying material across my local network, but is obviously slower copying from the internet. I think people really need to stop talking about things of which they have absolutely no idea as if they’re experts on the subject.

    • Roja says:

      01:09pm | 13/08/10

      @SuperD - just because you can’t foresee the uses of the NBN doesn’t mean others cant.

      There is currently a shortfall of over 4,000 doctors in rural areas - I would expect that video conferencing between patients and city doctors with the assistance of nurses to perform any required tests would help address this massive problem for rural areas.  Addressing the 4-6 week wait to see a medical professional is something that I would like to see done, where the wireless connections provided by liberals will not help achieve this. 

      This is just one of the uses of this technology where intelligent, innovative IT professionals will be delivering many, many more. 

      As for the $43 billion price tag, that is already closer to $33 billion with telstra’s buy in - an outstanding achievement by labor to get telstra to agree to the price, as they inititially valued those assets at $25 to $30 billion dollars.  In this Liberal achieved nothing in 11 years, unless going backwards is something.

      Then compare Liberal’s appointment of Sol Trujillo to Simon Quigley, then tell me the liberals should be anything other than red faced in this particular policy area.

    • Joe Blow says:

      01:19pm | 13/08/10

      @DDavis.  So you liken the current national broadband to a nation with only backroads and no highways.  So let’s run with your analogy. Labor wants to build an NBN that is the equivalent to every single backwater town all across Australia being connected by an 8 lane freeway…. your analogy.  No consideration to actual traffic needs, no forecasting?  No business case etc? No analysis of where applicable businesses will be situated?  Just build the freeway everywhere.  Sounds ridiculous eh?
      Let’s just spend 43 billion so that Fred in Wallamkanka can download a movie in 20 seconds!!

    • The Scarlet Pimpernel says:

      01:20pm | 13/08/10

      DDavis

      I’m paraphrasing Simon Hackett from Internode who said that in real trials, the only consumer device that has come close to delivering a consistent 100 (not 1000) Mbps is an Apple device. Your usual dlink, netgear etc devices can’t handle an incoming sustained 100Mbps and routing it.

      Commercial devices are available which will do 1000 but they are hideously expensive and out of reach for the consumer.

      If you know of a gigabit router suitable for ftth use please post a link that has a price listed.

    • john says:

      01:55pm | 13/08/10

      Super D..Where is the money going to come from to fit out all hospitals, city and rural, with the necessary equipment to hook up to the NBN to allow this dream to happen. You dont just pug it into the wall, it will require expensive new equipment to facilitate or its just another glib comment about the future.

    • The Badger says:

      02:38pm | 13/08/10

      Super D - no guessing what the D stands for

      An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
      James Michener

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      03:47pm | 13/08/10

      The Liberals just don’t “get” technology. Is the NBN absolutely necessary? Absolutely. Is it super profitable? You bet, which is why Telstra is hopping on board. If the Liberals allow the private sector to build it, it will be another monopoly, in which Australian will pay through the nose for data usage.

    • DDavis says:

      12:00am | 14/08/10

      Mr Pimpernel,

      In your disingenuous posturing you ignored the irrefutable reality of depreciation. But hey, we don’t even need to worry, because on a whim I googled ‘Gigabit Router’, and low and behold both Dlink and Linksys have a number of gigabit routers with wan side gigabit connections in the US$100 to US$200 range, so *poof* goes your entire argument.

    • Annie says:

      11:27pm | 14/08/10

      “does the govt envisage people stripping down to their underwear etc” funniest bloody thing I’ve read in a long time cheers for that now I’ll just get a tissue & dry my eyes

    • fairsfair says:

      08:45am | 13/08/10

      hahahaha - thank you Punch. I love that during this exhausting election campaign you can still find the space to run fluff pieces such as this. Has really lightened my Friday. Thanks again!

      Reply

    • Joan says:

      09:03am | 13/08/10

      `Julia Gillard is a class act.`  And what an act. Vowing loyalty one day , knifing Rudd next day. Air-brushed supermodel one day then promising real Julia next day.  Gillard smiling well of course - yeah she is Latham`s number one fan -  remember   the ` intimidating hulk of a man growling like a menacing dog` Latham is the same guy Gillard thought was prime ministerial material and went out of her way to sell him to Australian people- except they didn’t buy. Yeah and we know all about Gillards economic plan to spend, spend spend, - just continue the massive spending started post 2007 election straight after ripping `the fiscal conservative` promises made at 2007 election.  Gillard with her law degree and Swan with his arts degree more knowledgable about things economic than Abbott with degree in economics???  Really??  Gillard some act with her manipulative language she sure has pulled the wool over your eyes.

      Reply

    • Youdy beaudy says:

      09:06am | 13/08/10

      I watched a talk on TV yesterday which was held at Queensland University. The guest speaker was American Professor Joseph Steiglitz, Nobel Laureate, who spoke on economic matters with regard to the US Handing of Sub Prime and other world economic matters, also his view on world economics in particular stimulus packages put in place.

      Everything that he spoke about seemed to endorse the actions taken by the Labor Party to stop the negative effect of the Global recession on the Australian economy. Although he spoke generally his ideas were in support of policies which were brought in by Labor here. The stimulus package and other economic measures seemed to him to be the right forms of action taken. He said that in the situations that were faced here that although there were problems it was definately the right action to take to strengthen the economy against collapse.

      He was very positive towards the Labor programmes and I didn’t see one report on his lecture either on the Punch or anywhere else. I thought him being Guru of economics that there would have been something mentioned by the media. I also thought that with the battle for the Government in the election that this support of the way Labor handled the economy should have been promoted in a positive light for Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard going forward.

      I think he felt that Australia was quite expensive to live in and he said that he ordered a cup of coffee but didn’t expect to have to take out a bank loan to pay for it. He was very informative I thought and positive for the future of our economy as the right decisions were made by Labor.

      He didn’t get involved by mentioning Labor or Liberal but anyone following what he said would have seen that the policies put in place by the Labor Party under Mr Rudd were the right ones to stabilize the economy. If it is repeated today, people should watch and learn something from a recognized international authority.

      I, and others i’m sure, would like to see the truth represented in the Australian media for once in their lives instead of the manipulation of the minds of the public which goes on. Stop printing Lies media. If what he said is correct then the Media should be lauding Labor for their stimulus package not putting them down all the time. It seems that Labor took the right actions not the wrong ones as have been suggested by the Abbott Liberals.

      Reply

    • Duff says:

      10:55am | 13/08/10

      Youdy Beaudy, you’re right, he didn’t warrant a mention and he certainly should have.  No, instead of an interview with Stieglitz, The Australian published a piece by a history professor, critical of Stieglitz and his views on economic stimulus (and, of course, trashing Labor).  This was more newsworthy, apparently.  Go figure.

    • Carl says:

      11:36am | 13/08/10

      Maybe the truth did come out in the media, and Labor didnt actually ‘save’ 200,000 jobs with their stimulus as they are claiming. The stimulus is shown to have had a lag effect since a negligible amount had made its way into the economy by the time Australia was showing recovery. Other leading effects may have been responsible for us weathering the GFC such as the financial position left by the previous govt, the ongoing mining boom (that didnt slow down a lot) and china’s stimulus that pushed us along with it.
      There are also signs that the lagging stimulus effects may have heated our economy slightly later on and led to interest rates rising sooner than they may have

    • Richard says:

      08:08pm | 13/08/10

      Stiglitz is a clown, just like that discredited fool Paul Krugman. The IMF, World Bank, Reserve Banks (with the possible exception of our own RBA) and Nobel Prize Panel are all part of the problem, not the solution. There are plenty of economists who emerged from the G.F.C with their credibility intact, enhanced even, because they accurately predicted what would happen (and why) BEFORE the fact. The interesting thing that distinguishes these forgotten heroes of economics from celebrated exponents of the “dismal science” like Stiglitz and Krugman is that they UNANIMOUSLY oppose big government and big deficits. But of course the powers that be wouldn’t want that fact to become known, then they might actually have to pull their heads in a bit and stop splashing our money around like confetti.

    • thatmosis says:

      09:07am | 13/08/10

      Sir, Im afraid your weekly (weakly) column is a waste of space. The :facts” that you present are without doubt the most corrupt set of facts since Joolia stated that the money for the BER was well spent (haha). Add this to the fact that she is looking more and more haggard every day and more and more like a loser everyday and whatever you write is a joke. The Labor Party arent promoting thier policies because they havent got any and their only campaign strategy is to attack personally Tony Abbott. If and I say If Labor wins this election with the help of the other Labor Party the Greens we will by the end of the next 3 years be receiving foreign aide from countries overseas. I have lived through at least 3 Federal Labor Governments and its always meant higher prices for everything and a debt that takes a Liberal/National Party years ti bring back into Surplus. Thats not what I want for my kids thanks very much.

      Reply

    • Judith says:

      09:11am | 13/08/10

      Timb, thanks for the I’m alright Jack up you. The NBN will help a lot of business people, just look into it and open both eyes to the writings of big business, they all want it, full stop. If I didn’t eat out or only drove the car once a week, ate by candle light and ran outside when it rained to wash, my bank account would be big also.Peter Costello kept all the GST for the first 2 years, than starved NSW of money of-cause we would have surplus.My idea of a government is to start schemes, like the Snowy River(going back a bit I know) but just as an example, building infrastructure, piping water down from the north any-thing except stashing it in the bank.Nothing has been done to Hospitals for years and now people like you are blaming Labor, Lbs 11years verses lab 3years, you do the sums.I would be willing to bet you either own a business or had one because LNP only look after these people,like all your GST back.

      Reply

    • Joan says:

      10:29am | 13/08/10

      `The NBN will help a lot of business people`  well let big business pay for it .... they don’t need subsidies, from mums, dads, and workers. Big businesses on the backs of the worker yet again as they laugh all the way to the bank reporting billion dollar profits and million dollar wage rises, yet crying poor for any worker wage rise.  I`m in small business and current speeds are enough for me,,,, don’`t want to subsidise big busines extravagant needs.

    • Bruce says:

      09:13am | 13/08/10

      Hospitals will also benefit from 1Gig per second download speeds but the key to the “to the home” is the increased potential to deliver health and social care services at home where they have traditionally been delivered more expensively in institutions. It has nothing to do with stripping down in front of web cams and will not replace all services but offers enormous potential particularly with monitoring etc….also it provides the potential for australian businesses to be innovators in these areas, which will be significantly restrained if we keep lagging the OECD as we were under the Coallition’s appalling botching of the communications sector

      The NBN is very expensive but there is no inexpensive solution to break the impasse that was inherited from the visionless approach to Telstra privatisation

      Reply

    • Joe Blow says:

      01:25pm | 13/08/10

      So if there are so many benefits, why oh why can’t the Labor Party come up with a business case that backs their claims?  Bruce, perhaps you can inform people like me just how many hospital visits will be saved by this $43 Billion white elephant?  While you’re there can you please let us know which other OECD governments have a provided government funded broadband network to every house.  Just out of interest…......

    • john says:

      01:41pm | 13/08/10

      ....and they will then slow down the speed with a net filter!!
      Lets be real, the biggest use will be downloading songs and movies. Thats what the average home user is interested in.

    • Rowdy says:

      09:36am | 13/08/10

      Sorry Dick….but at the 2007 election, Labor submitted 85% of their policies to Treasury for costing 12 hours before polling day…and you have the hide to try to take the high ground?

      Go away…..

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:36am | 13/08/10

      Not only that…

      Whats the point of Labor costings its programs when so far it is near 100% of going over budget on all its current policies. BER, pink batts, green loans, NBN have gone so far over budget its not funny.

      “$27billion worth of Coalition promises ” how much has labor promised for the NBN alone? Which brings me to another point can I have some verifiable evidence of imporvement in medical operations and small buisness accessing international markets that can not be done now on current speeds?

      ——

      I also don’t fully understand the use cases for all this bandwidth. One of the first things you hear talked about is remote communities getting better medical care. Ok, maybe we’ll be able to move high-res x-rays and MRI results around, but I think you’d have a better chance of finding a unicorn than finding a doctor willing to remotely diagnose a patient over a high speed internet connection. Insurance companies will step in and crack down — I mean we struggle to keep obstetricians from leaving the industry because of malpractice, imagine what this would create?!?

      The other big use case is improved education. Again, I don’t understand this. The technology exists today to record lectures, stream them live or have them up for download and with the use of stuff like Skype, people can participate remotely. What are we talking about here, better resolution? Come on!

      The final use case myth is around the magical undiscovered future technology that is going to require bigger bandwidth or we’ll all move back into caves and be forced to live like Bear Grylls. That is Future FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) — nothing more, nothing less. People who want this to go through use the fear of “falling behind” as a passive aggressive sales technique.

      —-

      43 billion with no buisness plan, no cost-benefit studies, and benefits that are so laughable it makes me sick. Say you do get better remote healthcare through an increased broadband speed, I bet I could get better results with 43 billion directed straight into health infrastructure.

    • JT says:

      09:39am | 13/08/10

      That ‘‘intimidating hulk of a man growling like a menacing dog’’ is the man the Labor Party put up as their choice for Prime Minister of Australia at the 2004 Election. What does that say about the Labor Party?

      Reply

    • Rosie says:

      09:39am | 13/08/10

      Richard I hope you will publish this. I have tried extremely hard to tone it down this time to get my voice heard here.

      Can I just remind you and all Labor supporters that the intimidating hulk of a man growling like a menacing dog that you have described Mark Latham as is the very person that the smiling & warm female PM Julia Gillard strongly supported to be the PM of this country in the 2004 Election Campaign against John Howard. Thank God John Howard and the Libs won and went on to lead the Libs and govern for 12 years.

      You talk about our PM as an class act??????? Oooooooooops I had better not say anymore but to say that the reason she lost at the Rooty Hill RSL forum was because she wasn’t allowed to fob off the questions and answer with the Labor message she is always trying to promote. Our PM got away with it at her Oscar performance with ABC Q&A programme but not at Rooty Hill

      I say Rooty Hill RSL club you guys Rock!

      Reply

    • Joe says:

      09:45am | 13/08/10

      How come Gillard gets points for dignity when confronted by Latham and yet no big deal when it comes to Abbott’s composure when confronted by Latham? Is it because she is female or something?

      Reply

    • Larson says:

      10:53am | 13/08/10

      Gillard did not get a woman jailed!!

    • Kelly says:

      01:09pm | 13/08/10

      Larson is obviously a Pauline Hanson and Mark Latham fan.

    • Frank says:

      10:08am | 13/08/10

      Gillard stabbed Rudd in the back and made him cry. Any dignity the Labor party had was flushed down the toilet by her.

      Reply

    • BigBob says:

      10:40am | 13/08/10

      Latham confronted Abbott yesterday about getting Pauline Hanson put in jail. Its about time Latham started telling the truth instead crying over old wounds.  Liberal voters thought he was so funny when he confronted Gillard, wonder if they think it’s funny now.!!

      Reply

    • Sherlock says:

      11:43am | 13/08/10

      I’m a Liberal voter and I think it’s hilarious. I hop Latham keeps it up to next Saturday

    • Joe Blow says:

      01:27pm | 13/08/10

      Did Tony go sooking to Channel 9 demanding an apology?

    • libvoter says:

      02:14pm | 13/08/10

      Yep, it’s still funny!

    • gil4d says:

      06:50pm | 13/08/10

      put a smile on my face . would love to see tony and mark go toe to toe . i got a $100 on tony any takers grin

    • thatmosis says:

      11:16am | 13/08/10

      I think the comment to Latham by one of the people there was succint and to the point “Piss off Latham” says it all.

      Reply

    • john says:

      12:08pm | 13/08/10

      Richard, you are trotting out the same crap as Swan. I watched him last night on the 7.30 Report and he looked worried.
      Why are you guys so hypocritical! You have a go at the libs for not submitting costings in opposition however, when you were in opposition before the last election you did not submit your costings until after midday on the friday before the elction. Less than 12hrs before the election!!!
      And for Gillard, I can’t stand to even listen to her anymore with all the glib marketing terminology ( the new gillard, and swan still mention” for the futiure” as often as they can. Guess what the future never arrives). It took me 2 yrs to stop listening to Rudd, its taken me a matter of weeks to stop listening to the person who shafted him.
      And while on costings, where’s the business plan for NBN, it’s alraedy blown out. I am in business and the thought of spending without first looking at costs and outcomes unheard of. I also understand that only 15% of people have taken up the NBN. For a govenment to spend so much money in an area where the technology reinvents inself more rapisly than most, it could be a white elephant and a wast of money before its finished.
      Have a think about it, go back in your mind 5yrs and think about the internent, ISP’s etc and yu don’t have to be enstein to realise another tech leap will happen.
      The thought of another 3 years of this incompetant bunch is truely horrifying.

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      12:52pm | 13/08/10

      Hi Richard,  a couple observations.

      1.  You talk about the dignity of the current PM, but what dignity was shown for the office of the PM and her predecessor in the way Rudd was removed from office during his first term and then left to languish on the backbench. 

      2. What dignity is shown by the PM in her ad hominen attacks on Latham on Q&A. 

      3. What was inappropriate about his approach - she is no shrinking violet and they know each other from way back, comfortable enough for her to physically touch him (condescending or de-escalating - depend on the angle you take)

      4.  It is ironic that the former minister for Industrial Relations, who reinstated the unfair dismissal laws would unfairly dismiss the PM - where was KRudd’s 1st, 2nd & 3rd written warning?

      5. I find it ‘precious’ the our PM complain about Mark Latham confronting her, given the ruthless nature of her accession to the Prime Ministership.

      6. The way the Labor party and the PM have pursued ad hominen attacks on Mark Latham is indicative of a shallow machine culture in the ALP - it wasn’t too long ago they were dissing Hawke and Keating, and thereby giving away their economic credentials to the Libs.  Then they retuned them back to the fold because it was expedient to do so.  Now they attack Latham, an erudite and intelligent guy with good policy ideas and inciteful comments, and someone that could contribute to ALP policy as an outsider.  But he is also a good communicator with his larrikin humour cutting through the media BS.

      As Keating, Iemma and Carr et al have stated - nothing wrong with machine politics so long as you believe in something - the problem is the modern ALP is now governed by machine men that don’t believe in policy and are too focus-group driven. 

      The ALP have turned on Mark because he chose not to be on the gravy train and wrote a tell all book.  However what Mark’s interventions have shown is two things:

      (1) How poor the media are doing their job in holding our elected officials to scrutiny (Latham’s entrance on the scene means Laurie Oakes is going to have to do more than rely on leaks).

      (2) How shallow the policy from both parties have been, with spin a substitute for an honest but difficult discussion with the Australian people.

      Reply

    • john says:

      01:35pm | 13/08/10

      Agree completely Mark…and why isn’t Laurie Oaks coming out dumping on Latham for his confrontation with Tony Abbott…funny that.

    • Undignified Gillard. says:

      12:55pm | 13/08/10

      Mark Latham reminds me of everything ugly about Labor and their power-crazed union thugs.  Once a thug, always a thug.
       
      Kevin Rudd was not a good leader but he wasn’t a factional in-fighter like Gillard, Latham, Shorten, Arbib, Howes and the rest. 
      The dissembling Gillard is an “appearance” politician, unfortunately it is bogan appearance. 
      Even the most inept public figure would have managed a colleague’s buffoonery in almost the same way as Gillard managed Latham.  But most women would not patronise others as Gillard does by putting her fingers all over strangers.  Men would not do that, so why does Gillard privilege herself? It’s a conniving, crawling style.
      In the middle of the ‘flu season, here is Gillard, who wants everyone to believe she is the earth mother of politics, pawing her hands over anyone and everyone regardless of whose hands she has been shaking and gathering transmissible germs along the way.

      Undignified.

      Reply

    • TracyS says:

      01:34pm | 13/08/10

      The body language in the photo is telling. Lathams facial expression and body posture is definitely aggressive. Gillard matches the lean forwards and gets eye contact showing that she is not intimidated, and has a calm smile on her face. In that one interaction, she highlights his complete lack of power and relegates him to the ranks of the irrelevant.

      Reply

    • Dash says:

      02:00pm | 13/08/10

      And what was Labors economic plan? $40.4 billion dollars of defecit? Record levels of foreign debt growing daily? Increasing inflation due to the carbon price and it’s impact on power prices? P!ssng away taxpayers money on dodgy schemes and the NBN? When was the last time Labor brought down a surplus budget? Give me a break! If you want to talk economic management, look at the $20+ billion of surplus with zero debt left by the Howard government. Look at the impact the financial services reform during the Howard era had on the stability of our banks! Look at how low unemployment was (it’s gone up under Labor)! What’s the point of all of Labor promises? They proved after 07 that they either lie or do not deliver. no grocery choice, no fuel watch, no 200+ childcare centres, lie about not touching the private health rebate, lie about the “great moral challenge of our time”, lie about delivering more affordable housing, lie about delivering cheaper better childcare, lie about Julia’s membership to the Socialist Forum, lie about the East Timor solution which never existed, lie about delivering cheaper books, lie about abolishing compulsory university union membership fees, lie about taking control of hospitals by July 2009, the insulation scheme fiasco, rorting of taxpayers money under the school halls program, green loans joke, lie about the “non-negotiable” profits tax,  and the list goes on and on and on. Who are the people that still think this crowd are worth voting for? Who are the people that still believe these morons? Or are they only concerned about the speed of their Facebook connection?

      Reply

    • Against the Man says:

      02:45pm | 13/08/10

      Gillard’s economic plan: spend, waste, tax everyone more, retire with a large yearly payout and leave this country with less respect and dignity in the eyes of the rest of the world.

      Reply

    • Randal says:

      03:43pm | 13/08/10

      Spare me this Charter if Budget Honesty crap Dick, why not come clean and admit that in 2007 the ALP held their policies back as late as they could to ensure they could not be costed by treasury and to complain about the same treatment in return is nothing but hypocrisy, but then again that is all the ALP is, nothing but steaming pile of hypocrites.

      As for policies over two election cycles Dick, what do you think the 2.5 billion promise to build the Paramatta to Epping rail line represents, this pathetic policy does not even split over two election cycles as you are not spending a dollar until after the next one.

      Or what about your Carbon Tax Dick, Julia has stated throughout the campaign that we must have a price on carbon, yet Swan gets in this morning’s media and says we won’t have one, yet its party policy to implement an ETS in 2013.

      This kind of double dealing politics has become such a part of the ALP that no one can believe a word you say, and that was clearly the mood of the room at the Rooty Hill RSL, yet you lot just don’t get it and keep peddling the same tripe.

      As for economic credentials, I think the 11 years of Coalition government prior to the Rudd experiment tells us the truth on this, no waste, no debt and no overblown and rorted government programs. plus Abbott has least has an economic degree, where did Swanny and Gillard leave their economic credentials Dick, oh that’s right, you can find located with Australia’s spiraling debt.

      So when it comes to the economy Dick, there is only one party that always seems to make a ‘Dick’ of it when it comes to running the economy, and that clearly is the ALP.

      As for the Latham rubbish at the start, was he not the man that the ALP, and in particular Julia, believed should lead this nation??

      If he is now such a dill what does that say about the judgment of this party and its current Prime Minister, probably explains the blow outs and rorts methinks!

      Reply

    • Housewife49 says:

      08:09am | 14/08/10

      Latham was a poor choice. But when not under pressure, he’d seemed presentable enough.

      There’s been dud picks on both sides, and Randal (unless he’s only a ranting teenie), knows that well.

      As my late husband would’ve said, I’ll see your Latham and raise you one Downer.

    • Drew(Darlinghurst) says:

      04:54pm | 13/08/10

      Tony Abbott is TOAST. Enjoy the wilderness of opposition…again

      Bring on Election Day!!

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      05:01pm | 14/08/10

      Mr Latham is too earnest.
      As someone who has been involved in conflict, this is a fatal weakness.
      Could someone please tell Julia ?

      Reply

    • Deadly Ernest says:

      06:25pm | 14/08/10

      Re Paul C:The Coalition did reveal that Gillard is umarried without children and is unable to understand the needs of Families.Is that playing the ball? No.And why not?Because it is all TRUE. You just don’t get do you?

      Reply
 
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