[LINK] What I don't like about Turnbull's NBN

[Jan Whitaker]

At 01:31 PM 24/04/2013, Jim Birch you wrote:

>One thing that worries me is that Labor plan - I guess, the Liberal plan
>too - includes selling the NBN when it is built.

hmmm....not sure if that is a major issue -- if the money comes back 
via capital investors of an on-going concern (and a monopoly at 
that), as Telstra is re copper, then we are just in an ebb and flow 
of public capital versus private. If the return is then used to fund 
the next piece of developing critical infrastructure, then it is 
money well used instead of just crowing about having a AAA rating. 
What is the value of that if you don't leverage it for the public 
good? That is what government bonds are for. We don't hear about them 
much any more since Costello pretty much destroyed that market single 
handedly, but what better investment than government backed bonds? 
It's how the US pays for capital works all the time, but Australia 
because of the lack of state/local taxation powers doesn't seem to 
have as part of its psyche.

Also, re who will pay at the consumer level for a capital improvement 
that is going to be owned by someone else -- I don't think that has 
been discussed enough. The regulation around this is going to be 
horrible so that even if streets of neighbours said they wanted to 
create a co-op to only dig the street once, would that be allowed? 
What if it's installed, but the end users don't all want to connect 
to it? What if it's an age-mixed, owner/renter-mixed street like 
mine? There is a huge advantage having those variables completely set 
aside and washed through the government finance domain to avoid all 
the crappy hassles of individual belief systems. That's what govt 
incentive programs are for, ffs.

Someone needs to remind Malcolm that not everyone who needs 
infrastructure lives on the North Shore of Sydney and can write a 
cheque to cover it over and over again without ownership. At least 
with solar panels, they belong to the property, not out in the street.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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