[LINK] Malcolm Turnbull on ABC Melbourne

[David Boxall]

On 8/04/2011 10:00 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> I caught some of this interview and thought I'd document for Link
> ...
> fast broadband by not running fibre to every house
> expensive
> wants as least cost to taxpayer
> ...
I find that last bit intriguing. I wonder what he meant by "least cost".

Least cost for the foreseeable future would see us running underground 
fibre to every possible premises. Least cost for the current electoral 
cycle would have the government sitting on their hands and leaving 
service provision to "the market".

It can't be credibly argued that we won't soon find that we need fibre 
to the premises. Doing a half-baked job might save a little in the short 
term, but will cost a lot later on when we have to go back and do it right.

The government wants to string fibre overhead. That will need replacing 
within a decade. The opposition wants wireless instead of fibre. That 
will need replacing before installation is completed.

In Australian politics it seems, there's never enough money to do it 
right but there's always money to do it again. Unfortunately, it's our 
money.

-- 
David Boxall                         | "Cheer up" they said.
                                     | "Things could be worse."
http://david.boxall.id.au            | So I cheered up and,
                                     | Sure enough, things got worse.
                                     |              --Murphy's musing