http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/stephen-conroy/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/ Queensland has been a notorious capital of gerrymander and pork-barrelling, but never anything quite like the NBN. For two elections it has delivered bacon for Labor. In 2007, it was universally lauded. By 2010 Malcolm Turnbull had excoriated the economic case, but people privately hoped their home would be next in the queue and done for free.   At some point in 2012, with Labor in its worst political shape since polling began, the NBN has shifted from nation-building to furniture saving.  NBN Co’s roll-out plan for Brisbane has been effectively traced off the AEC maps of Labor seats and the correlation is jaw-dropping. In fact you are eight times more likely to get the NBN before 2015 if you live in a Labor seat. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/#item8178 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tender-trap-set-by-government-mired-in-emnity/ The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tender-trap-set-by-government-mired-in-emnity/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tender-trap-set-by-government-mired-in-emnity/#item8164 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tharrr-be-pirates-a-media-fiction-cheered-on-by-sooks/ There is a massive story going on in Australia at the moment. By massive, I mean massive in terms of the amount of space thrown at it. Massive in the level of journalistic indulgence it displays. Massively packed with distortions and sleights of hand. A massive pile of rubbish. You would have missed the story, as it first appeared in an obscure trade journal read by rich people who collect cufflinks, and was rehashed in a marginally more digestible form by a couple of newspapers which have decided to put media game-playing ahead of their core business of providing readers with facts. Reluctant as I am to attack a fellow Cornishman it was written by a man called Neil Chenoweth and would have made more sense if Neil had written it in his native Cornish.  Chenoweth’s editor, Michael Stutchbury, relatively new to the job of running The Australian Financial Review, can use his newness to explain the fact that while the AFR ran two pages on the September 11 attacks, it ran seven pages on this story on day one and a more restrained six pages yesterday. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tharrr-be-pirates-a-media-fiction-cheered-on-by-sooks/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tharrr-be-pirates-a-media-fiction-cheered-on-by-sooks/#item8133 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/click-here-for-an-insiders-look-at-gillard-vs-media/ Here is a quick multiple choice question. I am writing this column because: A) Rupert Murdoch instructed me to in his morning email; B) I am on a personal mission to destroy the ALP; C) The regular columnist is on holiday and I had to cobble together something at the last minute to fill this giant white space. If you are a member of the Greens, a self-proclaimed ethicist or a journalism lecturer you will of course know the answer is A. It’s perhaps best that you stop reading now, as to actually find out the truth would ruin your next six-part lecture series at the Enmore Anarchist Collective. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/click-here-for-an-insiders-look-at-gillard-vs-media/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/click-here-for-an-insiders-look-at-gillard-vs-media/#item6371 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/conroy-plays-deal-or-no-deal-on-nbn-business-case/ Update 6am: The ABC is reporting the non-disclosure agreement has been shrunk to just two weeks, making it impossible to see how the demand for seven years, or even three, was ever justified. Details of the National Broadband Network business plan are apparently so secret that in order to see them you have to sign a seven year confidentiality agreement. But objections by cross-benchers have now forced the Government to more than halve the terms of that agreement to just three years. If you’re confused it’s because the Government has embarked on a confusing strategy in a bid to solve its growing NBN business plan problem that will dominate the politics of the last sitting week. The Government is blurring the line between information that is commercially sensitive and that which is politically sensitive. In a bid to pass the NBN legislation Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told cross-benchers they could see the see the mysterious NBN business plan, but they would need to sign a seven year confidentiality agreement. Greens communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam and other cross-benchers have politely told the Government to go jump.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/conroy-plays-deal-or-no-deal-on-nbn-business-case/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/conroy-plays-deal-or-no-deal-on-nbn-business-case/#item4524 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hiding-the-nbn-buisness-plan-not-a-good-political-one/ The continuing insistence of the Government not to release its business plan for the National Broadband Network within the next week is hurting Stephen Conroy, aiding Tony Abbott and undermining the credibility of the project. Stephen Conroy has suffered the political equivalent of an atomic wedgie over the NBN business plan at the hands of the Senate. Not many thought the Senate would be able to get the underpants all the way over head, but they did. Even Bob Brown joined in at one stage only to back off when he thought little Stephen had had enough. For those who weren’t watching last night and today (can’t imagine why), the Senate passed two motions that demonstrate a majority of the upper house are opposed to delaying the release of the plan until after Parliament has finished sitting. So the Parliament is being expected to pass the bill without knowing whether the project will be commercially viable at some point. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hiding-the-nbn-buisness-plan-not-a-good-political-one/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hiding-the-nbn-buisness-plan-not-a-good-political-one/#item4511 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-net-is-already-censored-and-not-by-the-government/ Depending on which way you look at it, Australia can indeed be considered ‘the lucky country’ when it comes to internet censorship. Our browsing has always remained the decision of the user, and an entire world of possibilities have been left open – happiness, whatever your definition, has never been further than a mouse click away. While some of the options available on the internet are morally ambiguous, many of them are legal – you just don’t want to bring up the topics loudly at dinner parties. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-net-is-already-censored-and-not-by-the-government/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-net-is-already-censored-and-not-by-the-government/#item4150 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/has-conroy-just-rolled-on-the-net-filter/ A statement by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today appears to be a dramatic capitulation on his plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter to censor offensive websites. It is a stunning turnaround for Conroy who has been so vigorously defending his plan in the face of fierce criticism from a range of quarters this year, including the US Government which took the unusual step of publicly airing concern about the Australian policy. The legislation was due to be in Parliament by the end of the year but Conroy said today it was on hold, pending a review of the types of websites the filter will block and a number of other measures which address the long-standing concerns of opponents, including appeals for classifications and an independent review of censored content. If a filter is now ever introduced it appears certain that it will not take the form that Conroy has proposed. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/has-conroy-just-rolled-on-the-net-filter/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/has-conroy-just-rolled-on-the-net-filter/#item3514 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-broadband-network-fact-or-fiction/ Will we ever get a viable “national broadband network” or NBN? Well, that depends on how Senator Stephen Conroy, the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, plays the game. At stake are tens of billions of taxpayers’ money. In fact, the upwards of 43 billion dollars estimated to be needed to build the NBN is simply mind boggling. Of that figure, upwards of 26 billion dollars is “government investment” or, more precisely, taxpayers’ money. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-broadband-network-fact-or-fiction/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-broadband-network-fact-or-fiction/#item3048 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/broadband-network/ The federal government has been told the National Broadband Network can be rolled out for at least $5 billion less than the original $43 billion earmarked. News.com.au has the story here, but a quick back-of-a-napkin calculation on what it means: penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/broadband-network/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/broadband-network/#item3021 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 The commonly accepted choice between a stuff-up or a stitch-up is to go with the stuff-up.  Anyone reading the Auditor-General’s report into Labor’s botched tender for the Australia Network television service will reject that accepted wisdom and conclude a stitch-up was more likely. While the Australia Network may be Australia’s soft diplomacy channel into the Asia-Pacific, Labor’s internal wrangling over who should produce this service has involved anything but soft diplomacy.  A needless internal power game saw the most senior figures in the government face-off over the future direction of the Australia Network. Sadly, Labor wasn’t content to just battle it out amongst each other.  The owners of Sky News and the ABC were dragged into the fray as proxies in a war over a contract that need not have gone to tender in the first place.