[LINK] Battery back-up mandatory for NBN?

[Tom Worthington]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> On 6/11/2010 11:50 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>> Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>>> ... If we had $43b to spend only once, is spending it on the NBN the 
>>> optimum use of public resources? ...
>> I don't think the Government strategy is to actually spend $43b ...
> 
> Tom ...  My point is that there has been no priority setting. The question is: Is
> the NBN a better or worse spend of public resources than other potential 
> initiatives?

It is not worth an extensive cost benefit analysis for only a few 
hundred million dollars in expenditure. The NBN is worth it just for 
sorting out the Telstra monopoly.

There are more expensive, less well justified government programs, such 
as $900m to the car industry, for supposedly "green" initiatives:

* The "Cleaner Car Rebate" scheme was announced by the Prime
Minister on 24 July 2010. This will provide a rebate of $2,000 to new 
car purchasers who scrap their pre-1995 car. It is expected that there 
will be 200,000 rebates, so not counting administration, this will cost
$400m:
<http://www.ausindustry.gov.au/EnergyandFuels/CleanerCarRebate/Documents/Cleaner%20Car%20Rebate.pdf>.

It does not take an extensive cost benefit analysis to show this is not
a good idea. A simple web search on "cash for clunkers environmental
benefits" would do: 
<http://www.google.com/search?&q=cash+for+clunkers+environmental+benefits>.

* The Green Car Innovation Fund has $500m for the the Australian 
automotive industry to develop and manufacture low-emission vehicles: 
<http://minister.innovation.gov.au/carr/Pages/GREENCARINNOVATIONFUNDTOADDRESSCLIMATECHANGECHALLENGE.aspx>

It might be assumed that this fund is reserved for hybrid cars and 
similar, but $149m was provided to Holden for Australian production of 
the Korean Holden Cruze small car. The Cruze is a conventional four 
cylinder petrol powered car, with no "green" features, apart from being 
smaller than a Holden Commodore: 
<http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/eco/GreenCar.htm>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/