[LINK] Libs won't cancel NBN - Turnbull

[Ross Kelso]

David

You say that:

> Handing the network to the private sector repeats the mistakes of the 
> Telstra sale and of those states that sold the poles and wires of their 
> electricity networks. The concept of natural monopoly may be heresy to 
> the extreme Right, but that doesn't mean such monopolies don't exist. 
> The Coalition demonstrates what history shows: that people don't learn 
> the lessons that history teaches.

Whilst I realise that what you have said may be the current orthodoxy with
 much of the Link List discussion, but it does bear scrutiny.  For example, 
what exactly was the mistake in privatising Telstra - what lesson do we 
have to learn?  And once you have answered that, please tell me how 
people are going to learn what ever lesson that is with regard to 
regulating the grandest natural monopoly of them all, the NBN?

Regards

Ross Kelso

> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:40:13 +1000
> From: David Boxall <david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au>
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Libs won't cancel NBN - Turnbull
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> Message-ID: <4FEE751D.10000 at hunterlink.net.au>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 29/06/2012 7:29 PM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
>> [Since this is a 180deg. turnaround, not sure who to believe. ]
>> ...
> If Abbott decides there are no longer votes in opposing the NBN, then he 
> won't oppose the NBN. Whether he's actually made that decision is the 
> question. Beyond manipulativeness, he hasn't proven to be one of the 
> world's great thinkers.
>> ...
>> Mr Turnbull said the Coalition now believes "all
>> Australians should have access to fast and
>> affordable broadband but that the NBN [Co] has
>> gone about that objective in the single most
>> expensive and time-consuming way possible."
>> 
>> Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says the
>> Coalition now accepts the NBN is necessary but
>> differs in its funding model. Mr Turnbull
>> believes the private sector, not the Government, should finance the project.
>> ...
> Which (assuming the basic premise of the article) is probably where the 
> problems lie. The Coalition wants to do the job as cheaply as possible, 
> then hand the network to the private sector.
> 
> The ultimate goal, unless I miss my guess, is fibre to the premises. 
> Nothing else has the capacity to meet foreseeable demand. The question 
> is timing; do we do it now or do we do it half-baked, then complete the 
> job later? The latter is cheaper, only in the short term.
> 
> Handing the network to the private sector repeats the mistakes of the 
> Telstra sale and of those states that sold the poles and wires of their 
> electricity networks. The concept of natural monopoly may be heresy to 
> the extreme Right, but that doesn't mean such monopolies don't exist. 
> The Coalition demonstrates what history shows: that people don't learn 
> the lessons that history teaches.
> 
> -- 
> David Boxall                    |  Dogs look up to us
>                                |  And cats look down on us
> http://david.boxall.id.au       |  But pigs treat us as equals
>                                                    --Winston Churchill
> 
>