Bartlett making the most of Tassie's NBN

Stuart Corner
Friday, 23 October 2009 11:36

Opinion and Analysis

Tasmanian Greens leader, Nick McKim, is, according to ABC News "predicting a drip-feed of announcements over the Tasmanian roll-out of the National Broadband Network, to maximise the State Government's re-election chances," but there's plenty to suggest this has been going on for some time.

McKim's outburst of prescience was prompted by Tasmanian premier David Bartlett's address to the National Press Club last week at which he announced what was supposedly "the second phase of construction" of the NBN in Tasmania.

According to McKim "The way the announcements on NBN are being structured is to provide David Bartlett with maximum political value out of an infrastructure investment that is not his, it's actually the Federal Government's."

Surprise, surprise. Politicians have a long track record of trying to squeeze the last ounce of political capital from anything that represents even the slightest good news for the people responsible for re-electing them. But the practice does seem to have reached new heights with the NBN, and particularly the Tasmanian NBN: the first tangible manifestation of the $43b of federal government largesse, aka the National Broadband Network.

Remember the day after the NBN was announced , 7 April? Prime minister Kevin Rudd and communications minister Stephen Conroy jetted off to Tasmania for a photo opportunity with Bartlett in front of some trial FTTH network gear in Devonport to launch the Tasmanian NBN.

That's when it all started and it hasn't stopped since. iTWire has highlighted some of the more dubious publicity stunts, but to give you a foretaste of what is likely to be the norm when the main game - rollout of the mainland NBN - gets started, here is a recap.

In June the Tasmanian Government announced that it would invest $12.7m into Aurora Energy to maximise broadband opportunities created by the NBN. However, as iTWire pointed out, there was nothing new in this: The Government had flagged its intent to do this back in November 2008.

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