Government demonstrates lack of broadband vision again

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 08 March 2007 10:29

Opinion and Analysis

On the contrary, Conroy devoted much of his speed to very specific details of the growing volume of regulation under 10 years of Coalition government - an average of 1000 pages per year, and to  the history of 10 years of progressive reductions in the estimated cost of meeting the universal service obligation, with no review. He made specific promises to review and reduce regulation and to initiate a full review by the Productivity Commission into the USO cost.

Where Coonan did score points was in being able to point out that The ALP's $2.7 billion plan for a rollout of fibre to the node had disappeared from its web site.

"We all knew it was a workable policy (sic) which came under considerable fire from the industry. It certainly has no chance of success unless Telstra changes its mind about participating in consortia upon which it is based and I don't see that happening any time soon."

But what is the Coalition's alternative? Leave it to industry, it seems. Coonan said: "And we are committed to ensuring that we are not standing in the way of industry rolling out a next generation network that will deliver Australians the services they need and demand, both now and into the future."

Late last year when Coonan launched her Broadband Blueprint she said that it represented "an overarching document that provides a national framework for the future of broadband in Australia."

She promised that her Government would "work closely with state, territory and local governments to streamline initiatives to avoid duplication and to encourage the best climate for investment in next generation broadband infrastructure" and said that "the Australian Government has invited all tiers of Government to work on an implementation plan for next generation broadband infrastructure investment."

Amid all this talk of rival FTTN proposals and the desirability of avoiding duplication there was no mention of the Blueprint in her speech and now she says the Government is simply going to stand aside and let industry get on with things.

So much for vision and leadership!