To improve NZ's standard of living: scrap its NBN

Stuart Corner
Monday, 30 November 2009 13:16

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

He concluded: "New Zealanders are fortunate that today's political leaders have the vision to foresee the future and take a bold step. The superficial criticism in this report should not deter their determination to upgrade New Zealand's connectivity for future generations."

The task force does not limit its disapproval of government involvement to broadband alone. It says: "From producer board monopolies to a steel mill, from state-sponsored energy projects to forestry tax breaks, from export incentives to irrigation schemes, from film-making subsidies to repurchasing a rail network and an airline, to the questionable case for state commercial involvement in ultra-fast broadband the pattern is a fairly relentless one. Many of those interventions look disastrous and hard to understand with hindsight: all would have had eloquent champions in their day."

It concludes that "the case for government involvement in the further development of broadband technology in New Zealand is much less apparent [than for earlier government involvement in other areas]."

The report claims: "There has been no clear or convincing articulation of the market failure in any of the material released with the announcement of this initiative."

"The Government noted in announcing this initiative: 'private sector companies have decided, on behalf of their shareholders and as a commercial decision, not to invest in a nationwide network of fibre-to-the-home at this point in time' [and] we have not seen any sort of robust analysis of what market failure might justify government involvement in the provision of this sort of infrastructure when private investors, with all the incentives to properly internalise the costs, risks, and potential benefits, have chosen not to."