NBN: politicians and their promises

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 28 December 2010 13:52

Opinion and Analysis

The Federal Coalition, the opposition to the Federal Government, has had its Finance Spokesperson, Andrew Robb, make an excellent suggestion in relation to the NBN, but would he take it up himself?

OPINION: When it comes to broadband and the creation of an NBN or national broadband network, both sides of politics have had problems.

The previous Coalition (conservative) government tried to get broadband happening from the private sector, but with the conservative government having so massively intervened in the market, poorly selling off Australia's national carrier, Telstra, and with '18 failed broadband plans', the previous government could have sorted broadband out long ago, but failed, and failed dismally. 

On top of that, that previous government did not insist on 'structural separation' when Telsta was sold, which would have resulted in ownership of core network assets staying in public hands, instead of being sold off to private shareholders, allowing a single company to hold the rest of Australia to broadband ransom.

This blunder was preceded by the previous Labor government of the mid-80s to mid-90s not having put in place any form of structural separation either, leaving both major sides of politics unable to say they are blameless.

The current Labor government is now trying to re-monopolise the nation's communications and broadband infrastructure, creating an NBN of mostly fibre and some wireless at what appears to be almost any cost, and as is so easy to predict, the current government is having a really tough time of doing it right, with costs and timeframes already blowing out, even if only by relatively small amounts and timeframes thus far.

A journey of a thousand miles beings with a single step, and the journey of massive blowouts in time and costs starts with but a single small blowout. Thus the cost and timeframe will clearly expand, history tells us this will happen again, as it has happened before, and despite 'having a plan', our politicians of all colours seem no smarter than the Cylons who had a plan, too.

An interesting suggestion has come from Opposition Finance Spokesperson, Andrew Robb. Writing in The Australian, Mr Robb asks: 'Would Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy be willing to link their superannuation payouts to the performance of the National Broadband Network?'

He goes on to say: 'In essence, this is similar to what they are asking the Australian public to do; namely, invest $50 billion of taxpayers' money on the promise of long-term payback.'

Well, Mr Robb, if asking the current Government to 'link their superannuation payouts to the performance of the NBN', where is the bold offer from Mr Robb or his coalition colleagues to do the same, whether it be for the NBN, or future policies they will propose and implement in other areas?

It should come as no surprise that I am no fan of politics in general, with those on the right only slightly less odious than those on the left, but when politicians like Mr Robb actually make decent suggestions such as linking the super payouts of politicians to their actual results, then I expect they take this stance as an example - and added incentive - not to stuff things up themselves when they get into power.

After all, are we going to lead by example, or ask others to behave in a way that we aren't willing to behave in ourselves?

Ghandi said to 'be the change you seek in the world'. Well, Mr Robb, I agree with many of your questions and premises to Senator Stephen Conroy and Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but will you back your words and excellent idea of super-payout-performance-linking with action, or are you as empty as the people you seek to replace?

The quality and future of whatever NBN we end up with in Australia depends on our politicians having substance, and the conviction to live by their words. Something tells me this is the last we'll hear of Mr Robb's suggestion, and that is a shame, as it should be implemented, not just for the NBN, but politicians and their results in general!