Is Digital TV by satellite for rural users just 'œpie in the sky'?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 11:21

Opinion and Analysis

Although the Australian Federal Government has announced it is spending tens of millions of dollars to make the newest digital free-to-air TV channels available to those by satellite in rural and regional areas, the Federal Opposition is, as you’d expect, unconvinced.

When it comes to Governments making promises, there’s one thing the public knows: those promises aren’t always kept, are sometimes delivered in a vastly different form to what was promised – and often at a much higher cost.

Australia’s left-wing, socialist-leaning Federal Government has made many promises, especially in the area of a national broadband network, but has delivered very little - beyond hundreds of billions of dollars of new debt we didn’t have before they were elected.

While the conservative, right-wing side of politics isn’t filled with angels either, something that will ultimately lead humans to adopt a libertarian form of Government, Australia’s right-wing Federal Opposition is unsurprisingly filled with doubt over whether the new satellite TV system will ever be delivered, or not.

The doubt comes from the Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Tony Smith, who in seeming outrage and disbelief has penned the following missive, declaring that “Labor must convert talk into action”.

Smith says that: “The Federal Coalition hopes the satellite solution for better television access in the bush doesn’t end up as yet more Labor pie in the sky.

“Whilst people in rural and regional Australia will welcome Senator Conroy’s announcement, they should hold their champagne corks until they see the actual evidence and delivery.

“They should believe it when they see it – literally see it on their TV screens.”

Of course, there are undoubtedly many things that the opposition, when it Government, did not deliver, including a proper national broadband network, despite a myriad of broadband initiatives, but now that they’re in opposition, the focus more rightly falls on those in actual power.

What else in the digital TV satellite announcement does the Shadow Minister cast his shadow over? Please read on to page 2.