Nbn

Have you ever been to a lawyer? Have you ever been a party to a Court case? If you have or know someone who has, then you will know how expensive lawyers and going to court can be.

Yes, lawyers have an important role to play in providing legal advice when needed, but the cost of that legal advice keeps going up. It’s a bit like the big banks constantly bothering us with their pleas of how their cost of funding is going up and how they need to keep inflating their interest rates on loans and credit cards.

And, of course, the lawyers will also tell us how tough things are for them and, surprise, surprise, how they need to raise their legal fees to cope with their increasing costs.

Continue reading "Cost of Australian justice spirals out of control" »

OK. Let’s do that thing again where you make me look smart.
I thought I told you last time I am not a magician.

Seriously, I need you to make me sound like I understand the NBN. A guy in my job probably should, but I’m a little sketchy on the finer points. Actually, I’m pretty sketchy about the whole thing, really.
OK, but if I do this, you have to return my chainsaw this weekend. And my chainsaw must not be broken. And if it is broken, you have to buy me a new chainsaw. And whether it’s broken or not, you have to buy new chainsaw oil.

Deal. So what’s been going on this week with this NBN hearing or whatever it is?
It was a Public Hearing of the Joint Committee on the NBN. It’s Parliament’s way of keeping an eye on the project by gathering together a heap of Senators and MPs, who grill the players in the NBN saga.

Continue reading "A vaguely intelligent look at the current state of the NBN" »

Disability is the untold story of the NBN. I don’t care about faster movie download speeds, or better virtual gaming. The NBN is technology which creates accessibility for Australians with disability. That’s why, while there are many critics, I’ve agreed to become an NBN champion.

I want to spread the word about how people with disability can capitalise on the accessibility benefits the National Broadband Network (NBN) has to offer.

High-speed broadband, delivered by the NBN, will take many Australians currently locked out of our community, and connect them - sometimes for the first time in their lives.

Continue reading "Don’t dis the NBN’s abilities" »

On May 25, 1961 United States President John F Kennedy proposed to the Congress that the nation set a goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely by the end of the decade.

Kennedy’s comments not only fired the gun in the space race but they also began a productivity revolution. The US would invest heavily in mathematicians and scientists, research and development that would drive innovation and change the nature of business and lifestyles forever.

In the last 50 years technology has been the game changer when it comes to productivity. The introduction of the personal computer and internet to business has revolutionised communications and interaction between businesses particularly in the global context. 

Continue reading "What the Space Race can teach us about productivity" »

My political bubble recently burst when I realised this is a quintessential Labor government. I was convinced the Labor Party was just a microeconomic reform away from returning to its successful period of economic rationalism and bold reform between 1983 and 1996.

The delusion was abetted by the Prime Minister and her shallow rhetoric that she was reformist in the Hawke and Keating tradition.

I was lured into supporting the Labor Party by the Keating-inspired economic reforms that remade a moribund economy into an open and internationally competitive one.

Continue reading "RIP to the Paul Keating legacy" »

Remember those rabid Beta-tape aficionados of the late 70s and early 80s?

You know, the ones who swore they had found the one true technology and held firm to their allegiance as the video library shelves became chock-a-block full of VHS tapes and the beta tapes were relegated to a dark, dingy corner out the back before disappearing altogether.

“Beta’s better!” they would cry in frustration. And technically, it could be argued they were right. Problem was, consumers voted VHS with their wallets. And Beta, despite its small band of loyalists, died as a mainstream technology.

Continue reading "The NBN is as useful as those newfangled Beta tapes" »

Julia Gillard is hoping a breakthrough broadband announcement made on the eve of her first anniversary as Prime Minister will herald a much needed reconnection with voters.

With opinion polls showing support for her Government at the lowest level of any in decades, and her own approval tanking, the timing of the NBN announcement was a handy, if clearly deliberate distraction.

But if anything, it was probably undersold, given its weight.

Continue reading "Will the NBN help Gillard connect with voters?" »

Yesterday’s announcement that the NBN finally made it to the mainland was good news for the many Australians who have deplorable access to broadband services. But why did it take so long?

Simple: Australia’s communications policy-makers are bounded by a centrally-controlled, single-solution approach that has been around since the time of the telegraph. This model leaves no room for innovation, encourages contractors to artificially inflate prices, and stalls whenever a skeleton can be found in the closet of the head honcho of NBN Co.

When the Canadian Samuel McGowan brought the telegraph to Victoria in 1853, his plan to become a telegraph entrepreneur was thwarted by the Victorian government’s decision to rollout the telegraph network as a public monopoly.

Continue reading "The NBN’s the culmination of 150 years of cock ups" »

As we enter another budget season, we are again swamped by a wall of excuses from Treasurer Wayne Swan, excuses that are supposed to explain why his budget will be a dud, again.

Each year it’s the same.  As budget night approaches, out come the excuses.  It’s someone else’s fault.  It’s the financial crisis.  It’s a natural disaster.  It’s a mining boom that won’t deliver like other mining booms. 

Wayne Swan acts as if he is the only Treasurer to face challenges.  In Wayne’s world, all others had it easy.  Peter Costello and the Howard Government were lucky, according to him. 

Continue reading "Punch: Labor’s waste is to blame for dud budget" »

As the National Broadband Network juggernaut rolls on, one has to wonder if any thought has been given to the obvious danger that the NBN may fail. NBN supporters assume that it will succeed. This crash through or crash approach is a very dangerous way to pursue government policy objectives.

In this context, failure can mean a number of things. For starters, the NBN could fail financially. This could include construction costs spiralling out of control where, for example, labour and skills shortages drive up project costs.

The NBN Corporate Plan itself reveals that at the height of construction up to 6,000 premises per day will be connected to the NBN. That’s a lot of premises and a lot of skilled labour which means lots of risk to the NBN. Any delay in connecting such a larger number of premises would delay completion of the NBN. Any delay would substantially increase project costs and threaten the financial viability of the NBN.

Continue reading "The NBN juggernaut could turn into a white elephant" »

Will the NBN ever be financially viable? The short answer is most likely “No”.

If there were suspicions in the past, the release of NBN Business Plan on Monday simply acted to confirm the doubts over NBN’s financial viability.

In fact, the NBN Business Plan raises considerable uncertainty over such key issues as (i) the take-up rate for the NBN; (ii) wholesale and retail pricing of services; (iii) the impact of high speed wireless broadband on NBN’s financial viability; (iv) the time to build the NBN and (v) the projected internal rate of return for the NBN.

Continue reading "NBN: A potential national financial disaster?" »

Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy have just released the full business plan for the National Broadband Network, saying taxpayers would get a 7 per cent return on their $27.5 billion investment, and it would take nine years for the network to reach 10 million Australian households.

The business plan foreshadowed wholesale prices of $24 per month for the basic 12 Mbps, and $38 for 100 Mbps. But neither Gillard, nor Conroy, would speculated on what a fair retail cost for consumers would be.

The Prime Minister would only say that with greater competition would come lower prices for householders. What would you be prepared to pay for the standard or ultra-fast fiber packages set to be rolled out over the next decade?

I love progress. I’ve got an IPad and a desktop computer. I shop online. I work from home.

I even do my own software updates, partly from necessity and partly because I’m feeling empowered enough to do it.

The debate about the NBN has left me cold. I find myself asking: do I need faster internet speed?

Continue reading "But seriously, where will the NBN cables go?" »

So much for opening the curtains and letting the sunshine in. The last few weeks of the Federal Parliamentary year have highlighted the farcical lengths the Gillard Government will go to avoid the sunshine of parliamentary scrutiny. 

Demanding unprecedented seven year secrecy clauses from MPs.  Blocking legislation to allow the Productivity Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Then finally, dragged kicking and screaming, releasing just a flimsy 36 page summary of the NBN 400-page business plan.

It begs the simple question: why be so secretive?

Continue reading "The NBN still hasn’t brought the promised sunshine" »

Over recent years, Australia has doubled its financial commitment to foreign aid.

Yet our aid program has remained starved of attention from the government, media and community at large.

On Tuesday, Kevin Rudd sought to rectify this by announcing a five-month independent review of the effectiveness of Australia aid.

Continue reading "Australia’s foreign aid is starved of attention" »

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. 

Continue reading "Conroy plays deal or no deal on NBN business case" »

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.

Continue reading "Hiding the NBN business plan not a good political one" »

The reintroduction of the Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill is a key step towards delivering a vibrant and competitive telecommunications sector. It is in the interests of all Australians.

The Gillard Government is committed to addressing the mistakes of the past and establishing an effective and efficient telecommunications regulatory framework.

Reforms outlined in the Bill include restructuring the market to promote greater competition and strengthening consumer safeguard measures such as Customer Service Guarantee and the Universal Service Obligation.

Continue reading "Here’s why we need to split Telstra" »

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.

Continue reading "The Net is already censored, and not by the government" »

It’s time to put an end to all this partisan negativity. At a time when people are looking to our leaders for vision, it is great to see a political party step up with a long-term vision for the nation.

I am referring of course to the Coalition’s decision to destroy the National Broadband Network and all who promote it and instead uphold Australian values by promoting a more leisurely pace of download.

While the public may be firmly behind the NBN as detailed in today’s Essential Report, I wonder how many have really thought through the implications of faster efficient broadband on their already busy and cluttered lives.

Continue reading "10 reasons why the Liberals are right about the interweb" »

Tony Abbott wants to pressure the independents into making him prime minister in coming months without recourse to the people via another election.

And the chief battering ram he will use to crack the Labor-independent facade is to be the man Mr Abbott defeated in last year’s show-down over climate change policy, Malcolm Turnbull.

The green-tinged Mr Turnbull, also a self-declared internet tech-head, has been named as communication spokesman and specifically tasked with ``demolishing’’ Labor’s signature nation-building plan, the $43 billion National Broadband Network.

Continue reading "The old switcheroo: Tony and Mal’s cunning plan" »

Humble pie is a real food. Modern derivatives of it are mainly sweet, but the original dish was something like shepherd’s pie, only made with animal entrails rather than meat.

So that’s the recipe if you need to serve it up, and there’ll be many ruing their failed election result predictions today. Including me. Offal, yum.

But whatever about numbers of seats there were a range of predictions and arguments about the risks and opportunities in the campaign for both sides that never materialised. So here, totally subjectively, in no particular order and without pointing fingers, is a list of the top 10 campaign theories put about by smartypantses of all persuasions that turned out to be wrong. Please add your favourite wrong predictions and analyses in the comments.

Continue reading "Humble pie anyone? Top 10 furphies of the 2010 election" »

Many voters will only be tuning in to the election campaign this week but anyone paying even scant attention over the past month will have heard much of what Julia Gillard said when officially launching Labor’s campaign today.

Most of it was Gillard’s standard stump speech but it set down the lines on which the government wants to fight the final week on its strengths of broadband, healthcare, and voters’ increasing confidence in the Labor party’s powers of economic management. It was a low-risk, sober affair (no theme song audible on the TV coverage) as Gillard took the stage; Labor has had its fair share of distractions this campaign, thank you very much.

The knifing of Kevin Rudd and the poor standing of the Labor brand in NSW and Queensland have been matters of record that have dragged on the government’s campaign but Gillard took the opportunity of this set piece just days out from the election to talk positively about the future.

Continue reading "Gillard does the vision thing" »

Well Kevin Rudd might be at war with the miners, but yesterday he was finally able to announce a major deal - with Telstra. The PM, who’s been clutching at small pieces of good news lately was pretty happy to demonstrate: “what can be yielded through a process of negotiation.”

Announcing the agreement for Telstra to shift large chunks of its operation onto the National Broadband Network was a rare moment of respite for Rudd, who this morning woke to more Newspoll pain. According to the latest survey, Tony Abbott has narrowed the gap in the preferred PM stakes.

And judging by the very clever new Minerals Council ad I saw on Masterchef last night, clearly the “process of negotiation” with the miners hasn’t progressed much.

Continue reading "Campaign countdown: deal done, but will it count?" »

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:

On 7 April 2009 Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner and Stephen Conroy surprised Australians by scrapping Labor’s National Broadband Network (NBN) election policy and announcing an ambitious rejigged ‘national’ broadband plan at ten times the cost.

But 12 months to the day and the $43 billion surprise is still just that, all surprise and no substance to its delivery. Australians are yet to get one extra megabit of speed, or send a single packet of data down the Minister’s pipe dream network.

Labor first stumbled by ignoring the Prime Minister’s own advice on policy evaluation that; “Policy design and policy evaluation should be driven by analysis of all the available options… We’re interested in facts.”

Continue reading "Happy birthday to the NBN, shame it’s a fizzer" »

As cynical as it might sound you can’t help but think that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy would have been relieved last week’s media scrutiny was mainly soaked up by Peter Garrett’s problems with roof insulation.

But following the Sunday Herald-Sun revelation that he went skiing with Channel Seven chief Kerry Stokes shortly before handing out $250 million to the TV stations it means he’ll at least be continuing in his role as best supporting stuff-up.
Political cliché that it is, Conroy’s decision to hang out with Stokes on the slopes goes to the Minister’s judgment and it’s that judgment Kevin Rudd must really be beginning to question.

Continue reading "Is it time for Rudd to exterminate the Dalek?" »