Opinion: Abbott's posturing not a good sign for NBN backers
- 03 February, 2010 10:38
- Comments 10
Will the NBN be a white elephant?
The Liberal Party is yet to come out with an official position on the National Broadband Network (NBN), but the early signs emanating from its ranks are not good those hoping for a change of heart from the opposition on the $43 billion infrastructure project.
Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, appeared to reveal his stance on the NBN during the first sitting of Parliament for the new year, which was dominated by a debate around climate change and Labor's emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Backing up his new climate change policy, which is expected to cost $3.2 billion over four years and $10 billion over a decade, Abbott attempted to leverage the Rudd government's failure to provide a cost-benefit analysis of its network plan.
"With a Government that wants to spend $43 billion on an national broadband network white elephant without even a business plan, surely it's not too much to spend $3.2 billion on the greatest moral challenge of our time and that's what we will do," Abbott told Parliament.
Although one comment is far from compelling evidence, the magnitude of the climate change debate in the existing political circumstances combined with Abbott's choice to compare his own plan to a "white elephant" NBN does not bode well for backers of the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) plan.
It certainly doesn't mean the NBN rollout won't go ahead, but it is a sign the opposition will continue to oppose it as it did when Nick Minchin was shadow communications minister and pushed the cost angle in the debate.
So far, like his predecessor, the new shadow communications minister, Tony Smith, has failed to come up with any new policies or provide the ICT industry and public at large with a reasonable alternative to the NBN plan as it now stands.
The opposition has also remained tight-lipped over the possible separation of Telstra (ASX:TLS) and pretty much everything else to do with the major issues facing the ICT industry, remaining surprisingly mute even on Senator Stephen Conroy's controversial ISP-level internet content filter.
Many would agree with Abbott's view that the NBN is a white elephant of sorts, but others in the ICT industry may be wondering whether it doesn't have a sibling in the room given the abysmal lack of action from the Liberals on key issues.
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Comments
Raymond McKeown
The concern about NBN should be with Senator Conroy!nothing will be built this year!this comes from NBN staff at the highest level.They are still in the middle of "The Strategy" for god's sake! I thought the strategy was to build a Broardband network!
The NBN Co is a network of the old boy telco mates club! most of whom were out of work,the rest all come from Optus.
geez government are fantastic at commercial business...NOT
Raymond
Sydney Lawrence
Why wouldn't the Opposition hammer the Rudd NBN. $43 billion on a company that can't be competitive without, by blackmail and threat, eliminate all competition to establish a monopoly. The global warming argument will be a hiccup compared with the fury that will occur if the NBN disaster is allowed to occur at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.
Adam Robinson
Surely anyone who works in IT will look at Rudd / Conroy's track record on technology and laugh. "Laptops for schools....oh, did they need to be plugged in? Gee didn't think of that!". "GroceryWatch...you mean the data on the website actually has to be maintained? Too hard.". And "NBN. We've changed our mind. We're going to increase the cost tenfold, but we don't need to do a business case."
Would you hire a project manger and architect with all that on their resume?
tomek
lets just all stick are heads in the sand and at same time go back to dial-up ... oh wait ... half of my suburb is on dial-up and Satellite as it is a RIMmed suburb with very limited ADSL capacity
Avid Gamer
But why would anyone want FTTP when Luddites like Sydney Lawrence and others ONLY THINK FTTP is all about how quickly one can download Pr0n, movies, music etc and nothing else. He's a dinosaur and he knows it and everyone knows what happened to the them.
Tony of Poorakistan
Say what you like about Trujillo - he got things done. The idiots in charge of the NBN have been around the traps for ages. They didn't achieve anything except the status quo in their old jobs and they will do the same here. This network was supposed to be well and truly underway by now but it is beginning to look like it won't be started except (PERHAPS) for Tasmania by the time the next election rolls around, giving Abbott the perfect excuse to can the whole thing. And as for talking about vending in HFC networks and non Annex M DSLAMS - forget it. The upload bandwidth is woeful which means no teleconferencing, no servers no two-way traffic of any sort. It has to be fibre.
Adam
@Trevor Clarke
Honestly does it matter that the Liberal Opposition does not have a policy? They cannot act upon it unless they magically can unify the marginals against the Labor Office or somehow win Labor to their side (which they can't due Labor member's voting united stance).
The only time they need a formal policy is when the election rolls around and until then the topic is moot.
If anything Labor and you and other journalist colleagues should be publicising the lack of transparency and pushing for the Government to be held to task.
Speedy available internet would be wonderful if and when it is delivered.
Murdoch
Ah Sydney, you show up in the darndest places, still spouting the same claptrap.
Would you prefer to give that $43 billion to your beloved Telstra? Sure it'll increase your share value, but it doesn't improve either the price, reliability or speed of anyone's not on cable. How is that going for you by the way? Better than the millions that don't have access to it.
The NBN is something the government is building for everyone, not just those that already have adequate broadband access, of which, dear Syd, you are in the minority.
RS
Hear hear Murdoch.
The Sydneys and the rest of the Telstra puppets, who saturate all blogs with their Sol inspired lies, would be more than happy for the rest of us to accept two cans and a piece of string, if it meant an increase in their precious shares.
Disgraceful individuals.
RS
Ah Tony, I think you meant Sol Trujillo got things half done. Like
* half a billing system complete
* half an NBN bid
* half of his workforce on strike
* halved the share price
* completed half (well a bit more, lol) of his tenure
The only things he got done, were -
* jobs for his mates
* constant first class travel (to/fro the US)
* a disgraceful propaganda website (thankfully now closed).
* having Telstra break the law by denying Telstra's competitors rightful access to the PSTN
* making Telstra more hated than ever
* pocketing $m's for himself
* returning to the US and bagging us/Australia
Yes he got things done - thank goodness he no longer is getting things done.
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