James Riley
Friday, 23 October 2009 13:36
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The Nationals are on a hiding to nothing. This is a party that has been
on top of the telecommunications issue. They have been passionate
advocates for rural improvement to communications and for on-going
safeguards for the regions through three sell-downs of government
Telstra shares.
They have been advocates for more competition. They have been advocates
for broadband. The have been advocates of an open access network regime
and price equivalency.
They poked and pressed for more government infrastructure investment –
including the construction of a national fibre network – when John
Howard was Prime Minister.
And a central theme in all of this was a core understanding that the
telecommunications sector would not progress in the country until
problems in the regulatory system governing access to infrastructure
had been sorted out.
The Nationals have argued for a functionally or structurally separated
Telstra. They have understood this for years and in 2009 it remains
entrenched as party policy.
The point is the Nationals understand this sector, they understand the
technology, the business and the politics of telecommunications in this
country.
And they understand at a very deep level what a high-speed broadband network means to regional Australia.
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