[LINK] Libs won't cancel NBN - Turnbull

[David Boxall]

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