Whether Australia is a cork on the water, floating around dependent on economic tides and political wave action is the single most important question facing the nation today.
Our two-speed economy is not working.
We must find alternatives to manufacturing cars that motorists do not want, ships that never get off the drawing board, making appliances and gizmos that are made better and cheaper in low-cost labour economies… and the “Fly-In/Fly-Out” mentality that tells us digging up dirt is the only way to national prosperity.
One thing that cannot be brokered, dismantled or diluted is our ability to think: our native “smarts”.
We have very good educational standards, high literacy skills and a skilled, adaptable workforce. Yet our main economic preoccupation is digging holes in the ground and flogging off the dirt to nations willing to add value to it, where we are not. Mining has caused our economy to become “two-speed” – one part of it is booming and the other is declining.
We seem to have applied little thought to the following question: “What do we do to bring our economy fully up to speed?”
Mining sucks skills and resources from other segments of our industry. It forces our dollar higher and makes exporting manufactured goods un-competitive with the rest of the world.
We need to find a way of reconciling the undoubted good fortune that we have stumbled upon by being located above some of the world’s greatest mineral riches, and the desperate plight of our old standby industries struggling to make a quid where our goods and services are simply too expensive for other nations to purchase.
We need to find a future, not just settle for a fate based on doing what we have always done, even after it becomes unrewarding and un-competitive.
With these thoughts in mind I turned to the ABC web site to read an article by Kevin Morgan, on the NBN v. the Coalition’s #Fraudband copper rehash.
Morgan, who styles himself as a “commentator” on telecommunications policy and regulation, disappointed me. Greatly.
As I read through the column my eyes opened wider with shock that someone so supposedly well-informed could come up with the relentlessly negative commentary that he had presented.
It almost sounded as if he was personally offended by the NBN.
For example, what a stupid thing to write:
It’s now demonstrable that the Government’s all-fibre NBN, with its nominal price tag of $37.4 billion, cannot be built within either its promised budget or timeframe. In the first 10 weeks of this year, NBN Co, the company charged with the fibre rollout, passed only an additional 28 households a day. At that rate it would take 1,200 years to build the NBN.
And from a supposed “expert” too. A slow start is extrapolated out to the run of the project and becomes “1,200 years”. Does Morgan sincerely believe the NBN will take 1,200 years to build? I doubt it. It’s such an idiotic, misguided thing to write that it leads his readers to question his sincerity and his motives for writing it. And this too:
Indeed, it seems the only issue in play is the differing speeds promised by the Labor Government’s fibre to every home policy (FTTH) and those offered under the Coalition’s fibre to the node (FTTN) proposal…
What rock do they drag these people from under? And why is the ABC publishing such arrant nonsense?
OF COURSE, when it comes to the internet and telecommunications in general, speed is everything, absolutely everything.
Speed is fundamental to the very nature of any telecommunications system. Speed defines telecommunications.
It’s not 100mbps v. 25mbps we need to consider. It’s the almost limitless potential speed of FTTP (Fibre To the Premises) v. the Brick Wall that FTTN (Fibre To The Node) is going to run into in a few short years.
You don’t have to rebuild the NBN to get the mega and giga speeds our country is going to need in the very near future. There’s no need to roll out new cable or dig new ditches nationwide to upgrade the NBN.
You simply upgrade the switching equipment at the exchange, as better and faster technology becomes available. That way great leaps in technology can be applied efficiently to data distribution centres, and rolled out through existing infrastructure painlessly, without having to literally start again from the ground up.
After the upgrade, the new speeds and data flows roll out through the already built and commissioned pipeline, built at 2013 prices, not the inflated prices of some future decade.
The pipeline stays in the ground ready for gigabits per second any time the switch gear catches up.
To upgrade FTTN you have to pull out all the old, power-hungry cabinets – 60,000 of them – and build what Labor is building now anyway, with all the added up front extra costs to FTTN that building it right first via the NBN time avoids. By the time he’s half-way through his article, Morgan has characterized the NBN as a…
… train wreck that the Coalition has been obliged to frame their policy {around}. …
… thats right, a “train wreck”. Total destruction, complete disarray, mass deaths and suffering. A train wreck. What a spirit of adventure Kevin Morgan has! He can only see the past:
The reality is FTTN is by far and away the most commonly used technology to take fibre close to the consumer.
So if it was alright yesterday… then it must be alright for tomorrow.
Australia is a country that relies for its economic success on digging holes in the ground.
But it cannot rely forever on selling dirt to other, more enterprising economies, nor should it.
Morgan’s thesis (if you can call it that) is effectively that we should just continue doing what we have always done, that we should, by implication, continue to rely on mining, and when that peters out, we’ll have to find something else to do.
Gee what would that be?
This whole attitude that we must always accept second-best, that we don’t “do” high tech, that we should never set ourselves up for anything in the future, that we should only go by what other countries are doing (and do no more) is a death knell for Australia’s competitiveness in the not so distant future.
We are already running a “two-speed” economy. Exporters and manufacturers can’t compete with the dollar being so high. We will continue to run two-speed if we don’t get off our political arses and stop justifying outdated junk copper technology, worth not much more than its scrap value, by labelling ourselves as not good enough for the best.
This is when even this “best” is almost not enough to surmount the hurdles our economy needs to become competitive in the world, in more ways than just digging holes in the ground.
We need to become a one-speed, NOT two-speed economy.
The NBN will do that, or at least will help, but the cultural and technological cringers in the Coalition and in their fans like Henry Morgan will doom us to always being one step behind, while the rest of the world gets on with coping with the 21st century.
The question we must all ask ourselves is do we want a fate, or do we want a future?
To deliberately pick a second best option in telecommunications, like #Fraudband, when the best is underway and being built as the NBN, is vandalism of the highest order against the Australian people and the economy.
As Nick Ross of the ABC put it so tellingly, it’s like evaluating the viability of Sydney Harbour Bridge simply in terms of how much profit collecting tolls will generate.
It’s not about tolls, contracts, internet plans, a few dollars here and there spent laying cable (I know its billions, but judged against potential returns – real returns – it’s peanuts), or whether we could better spend the money paying for subsidized nannies, funding well-off retirees who use superannuation as a tax dodge or propping up expensive, exclusive private schools that sustain networks not of intelligence or enterprise, but of mates who throw easy business opportunities to each other.
It’s about looking forward to a way where we can bust the future of Australia right open and become not only a lucky country, but a leading nation in this competitive world, relying on intelligence and not the dumb luck that’s got us by so far.
We’re going to lose our car industry soon, with all the economic death and destruction for the manufacturing sector that loss will entail. What fools we will look like if, faced with having to re-skill our country, we need to rely on the technology of the early 1900s, as Morgan advocates, not just to talk to each other, but to talk to and participate in the future world.
THE PUB 
Leone, the answers in my case are:
“No”,
“No”,
and “Very rarely”.
I never pay to see movies from any studio, especially Fox. I don’t read any magazines at all, except at the doctor’s or the dentist’s (and then mostly National Geographic), and I only occasionally read anything in The Australian (because with Chrome the paywall takes an extra step to negotiate, so too much trouble). My one weakness is the Daily Telegraph, but rarely nowadays, for the same reason I listen to 2GB: to see what the bastards are up to.
So I’m pretty Murdoch-free. What I DO read is heavily contingent and sparse.
I was paying for a slim package (no sport) around about $70 per month. We had a cleaning out of telecommunications expenses and the first thing to go was Foxtel. We now pay in total $200 a month (internet+phone, mobiles x 2 and that’s it), down from nearly $500 (when you included everything – internet x 2, mobiles x 2, landline, Foxtel).
That’s a saving of around $4,000 per year and we don’t notice it one little bit. In fact we’re better informed and better and cheaper serviced than ever before.
I always felt bad about paying Murdoch for Foxtel – effectively to feed the bastard and paying to watch commercials and endless repeats – and when we did the sums it didn’t add up either (if you like) ideologically, or financially.
Anyone can do without Foxtel. There’s a weaning-off period (mostly my wife in our case who missed some regular shows), but within a few weeks a new regimen had been established and she was fine. She only watches the telly to unwind after work anyway. The commercial stations provide ample opportunity for that.
For myself, I didn’t miss any of my Foxtel experience. Not one bit.
I can see the same documentaries – and many others – off YouTube or Iview (and others) in 720p high definition if available. If I’m interested in the sports results I can get them just about anywhere.
It was a liberating experience for me and a money-saving one, too.
As for the few cents I may or may not earn for Murdoch by clicking on his newspaper sites, then he’s welcome to the big dollars!
I’m sorry you think you’re being bullied, because that’s not the intention.
But what, in my opinion, you should consider, is that it doesn’t matter why you’re still with Foxtel. Murdoch doesn’t care. As long as he has his money from you it’s HIM who’s laughing all the way to the bank.
He’s corrupting politics here to keep the outdated, closed network of Foxtel for himself, and it’s going to get worse.
The ABC has lost its BBC programs, with new management at the BBC and the Conservatives’ favourite media magnate stitching up a cosy deal.
The ABC will probably lose Australia TV as well. A new government can re-tender the contract just like that.
Murdoch isn’t ready to write off his investment in Foxtel yet, but when he does, you can bet he’ll be there at the head of the queue with dollars to buy a controlling share in the NBN. He’s no fool, he knows the NBN is the way to go, and when he can make money out of it, he’ll strike.
Foxtel is lumped in with the money-losing newspapers ONLY in Australia. Everywhere else his pay TV assets are with the “Entertainment” section of the post break-up News Corp. business.
Foxtel, it’s pretty clear, will be propping up the unprofitable Australian newspapers. That’s why he’s investing in Foxtel, not looking to wind it down, like he did with MySpace.
On there somewhere there’s got to be a good reason to give up Foxtel.
And I can promise you, you won’t miss it.
The $75,000 isn’t for babies – it’s to get “wimmin” out of the workplace. Babies and slipper fetching occurs spontaneously once the “natural order” of the Golden Age is restored.
Ctar1
What a rogues gallery. But they left out Johnny and Hyacinth, don’t war criminals from the colonies deserve a photo or three?
Jack,
You made this comment after I’d written mine above.
Yes, we do watch a little FTA TV, more so my wife watches it.
But we don’t buy anything much that they advertise, as far as I can audit our expenses, except HI uses Sensodyne, but has so for years and years.
I guess their business model is falling on deaf ears in our household, rather catastrophically in fact.
BB
More bullying, trying to convince me that your opinion just has to be the right one. You can keep on listening to 2GB and boosting their ratings, then whinging about how awful it is and I’ll keep paying for Foxtel and enjoying it. I don’t need to be ‘weaned’ off’ anything, thank you.
The other great reason for not having Foxtel is that you have to go to the pub to watch some games.
“Not my fault, honey. Blame Rupert”
leone
[What a rogues gallery.]
Fergie looked like she’d done a bottle or two.
Someone smart like Gus (GO’D) O’Donnell must have decided her daughters could be left off the list. One of them would have most likely turned up in black stiletto’s, a pink poker dot bikini and a brass tiara.
Narns
[“Not my fault, honey. Blame Rupert”]
😆
I think you’re projecting your lofty ideals onto others, BB, re Foxtel. You freely admit you didn’t like it. I, on the other hand as an avid aussie rules fan, love the coverage on Foxtel. There is no youtube alternative option.
There is more than one way to fight the good fight. And no set of rules.
Perhaps they’ll also clarify that they meant “suspect”, not “victim”. (*rolls eyes*)
Jaeger
The US news media is having a shocker today
article published by a Liberal Party-aligned think tank that advocates killing off the poorest 20 per cent of Australians as a way to get the budget back on track has been described as a ”disgraceful rant” by Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/kill-poor-to-fix-budget-writes-lobbyist-with-liberal-links-20130416-2hygv.html#ixzz2Qm3QtZNw
I buy the Herald on Monday for the TV guide. I also browse through the DT that litters the tables in the coffee shop I go to. I like to be free. My choice of reading is mine only. I set my onwn rules.
BB
… The BBC fully own UKTV …which is a Foxtel channel. So, I suspect their deal with Foxtel has more to do with that than any deal with Murdoch per se …
… It’s a great way to get some advertising revenue from their product …
new tvs have the guide bult in
ours is about three years old
I can see the tv guide going soon
hopefully
id love to see a boy cot of all media
I mean that
just about got oh weaned off the news
7 mate he vegs our on car shows,
that will do me
and if the worst happens I will not
be watching anythng
There are unconfirmed reports that there has been an explosion in a fertiliser factory in Waco Texas
[new tvs have the guide bult in]
I’m with gigi on the paper TV Guide.
Much easier to troll through on a Monday and mark the things I’ll watch.
Leone wrote:
There’s a contradiction in your accusation.
“… trying to convince me that your opinion just has to be the right one,” is not bullying. It’s discussion, with arguments both sides. I make a point. You make a point. We discuss.
If you think that’s”Bullying”, then you’re easily bullied. What do you think I’d do, ban you from the blog or something? Get a grip! This is a discussion forum.
Jackhawks wrote:
Foxtel only has the rights to Aussie Rules because they outbid the commercial stations, on which you used to watch the footy for free.
Now you pay for what used to be a privilege.
You pay Rupert Murdoch, the same person who publishes the Daily Telegraph and The Australian, who has corrupted governments on four continents, helped them start wars, throw people out of their houses and their jobs, and who seeks to get rid of the present government here by a combination of disgraceful lying, exaggeration and egregious partisanship.
All this so so he can continue to run his outdated and anachronistic old-technology Pay TV network for a few years until he can figure out a way to cash in on the NBN.
… supported by the non-trivial amount of money you pay him every month.
As for 2GB, they don’t know I listen to them because I’m not in their ratings survey on a recurrent basis. I have only ever done one ratings survey in my life, for Nielsen. It was diary-based.
In any case, I lied to them when I filled out my listening diary.
I told them I listened to ABC National whenever I switched my radio on.
I only filled it out because I felt sorry for the young Indian bloke going door-to-door handing out diaries. He looked like he hadn’t been too successful in our area (judging by the number of blank diaries he had in his carry bag).
That was specifically addressed on ABC radio this morning: Murdoch is opening up one, maybe two extra BBC channels on Foxtel.
Thanks BB….that’s new information to me …and tends to confirm your view of the deal 🙂
And my alternative is, BB? I think the all-or-nothing lofty ideal world is best suited to the greens, not this labor voter.
On another topical issue…SSM. My take on it is that Julia’s postion is not “the same as” Abbott’s as he claimed this morning….
Rather, Julia has consistently stated she is against Marriage ….So why on earth would people expect her to support Same Sex Marriage?
No mystery/inconsistency in regard to her personal belief as far as I can see….
Here’s your TV guide
http://www.ourguide.com.au/tv_guide.php?r=Canberra
Click on HOME to show your city.
TLBD
I know but I still prefer the hard copy in the Herald on Monday morning.
BB
Cut it out. One on one dustups over how pubsters live their lives is not on and spend their money is not on.
For those who want to give up Foxtel but don’t want to live without their sport (not making any moral judgements either way) there are a few websites which stream sport live. Google Justin.tv and Livetv.ru
Breaking: the Commonwealth has reached a deal on NDIS with South Australia for the full rollout by 2018
ABCnewsIntern @ABCnewsIntern 1m
MT @leighsales: My guest tonight is the Prime Minister @JuliaGillard #abc730
“MT @leighsales: My guest tonight is the Prime Minister @JuliaGillard #abc730”
And when will bloody Abbott front?
Good afternoon, Pubkateers.
I hope Ms Sales remembers that treating one’s guest with courtesy is pretty high on the list of good manners.
If the ABC wants good manners they should give Jane Hutcheon the 7.5 gig.
The PM knows what to expect. She can handle angry Leigh.
I like Jane Hutcheon. Geraldine Doogue is excellent too when she does the Drum.
Easy way around Foxtel …. uTorrent + VPN (Hide My Ass very good) + Torrent website …
No more Foxtel …except for the sport channels
THE Greens have alleged a conspiracy to undermine the party’s ACT Senate candidate after he was revealed by The Australian to have understated the duration of his ALP membership.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/greens-leader-christine-milne-claims-act-candidate-simon-sheikh-is-victim-of-a-stitch-up/story-fn59niix-1226623419484?sv=87ae3d8ff61aea5f69eeeb2734263ea4
gigilene…
Geraldine Doogue in a class of her own …only one comes close is James Carleton imo
James Carleton comes on the Drum occasionally. A very pleasant young man.
Markjs
But my Mum does not have the tech skills to do that. She has to subscribe to bloody Murdoch to get sports and especially the racing channels. The basic package she has give shytehouse programs, repeats them every few weeks and is expensive for what it is.But she loves her sport and there is no-where else for andelderly person who is not computer literate to go.
Abbott sticking to one of the few big-spending promises he’s made on paid parental leave, even while Matthias Cormann doubts it can be afforded.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-18/abbott-confirms-commitment-to-paid-parental-leave/4637062
Finger-licking good for Cando
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-18/taxpayers-fund-kfc-recycling-bins-in-qld/4636164
David Donovan @davrosz 1m
Graham Perrett has received a new response from the AFP re: #Ashbygate. New story on this by Ross Jones on IA shortly.
Fair enough puffy…
But a lot of peeps complaining about FTA & Foxtel (with good reason) could quite easily access other cheap/free services which are out there & can be found with a little bit of research …Google is my window to a world of possibilities 😉
Torrents allow download of SD & increasingly HD movies/TV shows even with the slowest broadband connection. BBC and Youtube are excellent sources of many old and new documentaries. Easy to use & free software is available which allows users to download Youtube video files to watch whenever convenient…
Increasingly, subscription services are becoming available as well as ‘pay per view’ … Additionally BBC/ITV in UK + ABC/SBS offer streaming services for repeats (or as ABC call them now “encore screenings”) …as NBN rolls out these services will increase & improve.
Broadcasting (subscription or FTA) is like Old Media newspapers …and is dying almost as quickly.
Ptmd
Knocking me of your Xmas card list just because I won’t help you become ‘Baroness Puffy of Dymchurch’ is a bit harsh.
The ABC producers must be working overtime to find people in Waco for Joe to talk to.
Joizus! Who’s got the time to watch Fox Footy or whatever, let alone pay for the ‘privilege’! I’m flat chat keeping up with the day’s posts at The PUB, when I’m not at a meeting, doorknocking or walking the streets for our Local Member. Plus doing all the family business, like cooking, shopping, washing, taxiing my kids around, cleaning & sewing up doona covers for #2 Son(why did I ever agree to do that one!?!)
Plus, the couple of little extra jobs I’ve taken on, having been elected to be Senior Vice President of our Federal Electorate Council, and President of our Local Government Council.
Plus I have BIG, BIG plans to drive the ALP in our area up the driveway and in through the front door of every dwelling in this neck of the woods!
Not in the ‘Ram Raid’ through the front door sense, 😉 but in the politely inviting us in for a cup of tea and a chat about the party sense, after we have got out of the car parked in the driveway. 😉
Not forgetting that I will still be expected to keep up my barmaid duties here, of course. 😀
For a place in America that has so many devout Evangelical Christians living in it, WACO just does not seem to be in God’s good books for some reason.
Eh bien, if CTar1 can’t or won’t help, moi will …
C@Tmomma
Whacko in Waco?
Ptmd – Nice tiara.
Fiona
You’ll keep – I ‘noted’ your cheeky graphic posted at 7:56 pm last night.
(I was hard at work by then and totally defenceless except for I may be have arranged to have Julian Thompson and some other RM Commando’s ‘cry havoc’ on you).