Who's belling which cat on broadband?

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 10:01

Opinion and Analysis

Communications minister Helen Coonan claims that analysts have "belled the cat" by condeming the ALP's broadband proposal. On the contrary, no one has belled the cat on broadband but this particular cat  is in sore need of belling.

Coonan's press release continued: "Telecommunication companies and analysts have slammed Labor's broadband proposal suggesting that it has been under-costed by at least $8 billion – double the amount Labor claims is required and proof that the Labor Party is trying to dupe the Australian public."

Coonan has a track record of being loose with figures in her critiques of the ALP policy, and this is no exception. The ALP has never claimed the network would cost half of $8 billion: it proposed using $4.7m from the Future Fund to partially fund the network, not the "$8 billion ‘smash and grab'" that Coonan is claiming in her press release.

But back to this belling the cat business: Coonan's scribes seem to think it means to condemn or criticise. It means no such thing.

"To bell the cat" means to take an action that is risky. The phrase comes from an Aesop fable. A family of mice could get no food because of its fear of a cat. The mice decided that the best thing to do would be to tie a bell around the cat's neck. That would tell them where the cat was. All agreed that it was a splendid idea until one wise mouse stepped up and asked, "Who will bell the cat?"

You can see the parallels with broadband? There is a widely held belief that broadband will be important to Australia's future, and that unless drastic action is taken, in regulation, investment or both, the situation is not likely to improve.

But who will be brave enough to "bell the cat" and take the drastic action needed? The ALP has indeed been brave enough to have crack at it and as a result the government, which has done little for years through procrastination or pusillanimity or both, has been spurred into action.