[LINK] Future short-circuited as hi-tech sector overlooked in rush to spend

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 09:15 +1100, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> Schools got libraries instead of digital information or extra computers 
> and file servers. They got halls instead of information super-highways.

Good. Children need libraries and space a lot more than they need
broadband or laptops, and both libraries and space are in perishing
short supply. Would have been nice to see some of that spend go on
teachers too.

> being splurged on short-term, one-off payments could have provided every 
> school and hospital in the country with broadband connections and 
> updated computer equipment. This would have provided medium- and 
> long-term benefits as well as a short-term boost to construction and 
> spending.

Hospitals want nurses, beds and doctors (in that order), and those
things will do more to save lives than any amount of broadband.

> The grandly named national Broadband Network was the Government's single 
> biggest election promise after tax cuts.

Yes - and had they decided to spend 20 billion, I'd be listening.
Instead they decided to spend a quarter of what was needed, thus
guaranteeing a) a bunfight over the crumbs and b) no useful result.

> why not double the National Broadband Network funding and have the 
> federal Government build it.

I'm for that - as long as they quadruple the spend.

> the track, perhaps, it could be sold as a regulated utility, paying back 
> the taxpayer.

What? Jeez, do people learn nothing from history?

Regards, K.

PS: Not a troll. I'm tired of techies seeing tech as the answer to all
our ills. It's people, not bits, that matter. *Especially* in medicine
and education.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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