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 
Questioner accuses Abbott of not answering his question either. “Stop the boats” didn’t cut the mustard as an answer.
Ooh hang on. This guy is more hardline than Abbott is prepared to go with. He wants welfare cut off entirely, which Abbott clearly won’t do. So now he’s backtracking and waffling again.
If there are enough people like Chris about, One Nation may get another chance.
Typing quickly before I go to sleep – this mornings question is why does the CoL pay bugger all tax?!
A primer:
The answer is easy – the CoL mafia did a deal with the Normans.
Snooze time …. for the next hour or so.
Abbott is such a mumbler. Ah Ah ah.
For fairness these same undecided voters should be put before the PM.
One for CTar1
Question Nine – SES and Emergency Funding. Will Tony give them more? Tony – well, no, but here’s an anecdote and a homily. Will that do? He doesn’t know shit about the issue, apparently. If funding has been cut by state governments, he is sad.
Question Ten – Global Warming. Please explain Direct Action. Stand by for more waffling.
I’m a real fan of Mr Shmarb, as my grandfather used to call him.
Apparently, Direct Action works like this: People will come to us with good ideas, and we might fund some of them. And everybody will be happy.
What would be better is the list of questions asked of Tony being shown to JGPM for answers.
Someone tell the PMO.
Jesus a decent moderator other than the fanboy Spiers would slice Abbott apart.
buster2010,
Did you just arrive tonight or have I been asleep?
Question Eleven – Fuel Prices. What’s the deal with it? Abbott just lied about Fuel Watch. He said the ALP brought it in and it didn’t work. I don’t recall that. The guy asked Abbott, in effect, why am I always baffled with bullshit when I ask about high fuel prices. Abbott in response baffles him with bullshit. Nice one.
Aguirre
An absolutely hopeless and rambling non-answer on fuel pricing.
Other than reminding everybody of the good old days of the Howard govt Abbott has offered donuts.
He will escape unscathed I suppose but the audience seems dazed by his tightly scripted dullness.
Question Twelve – I miss Work Choices. Can you bring it back under another name please? Abbott is alarmed about frightening the horses. He defers it, saying they’ll talk about it nearer the election. But oh he feels the poor guy’s pain. Now he’s straddling the fence.
He and his dad are playing tag tonight TLBD.
Where is this Abbott interview?
Oh good lord, Abbott is now relying on his “instinct”. This guy wants carers or sick leave to be scrapped at the end of each year rather than accumulating if it’s not used.
“The short answer is…Ah ah ah”
Spacey, so sorry to hear about your Mum. xoxox
ere mis.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/tony-abbott-talks-the-talk-in-corangamite-the-nations-most-marginal-seat/story-e6frf7kx-1226620243723
Now he’s making an absolute mess of a WorkChoice issue. Speers nails him into telling the small business owner that he won’t fix his particular problem around accumulation of sick leave.
Thanks Henry
A serious question about the NDIS is answered by a story about his bike rides.
FFS!!
Thanks misadventure xx
Question Thirteen – NDIS. What’s Abbott going to do about it? I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. He’s going to waffle about it. Somehow he thinks Pollie Pedal is an adequate response. He was so supportive of the ALP’s legislation on NDIS that he even proposed a bi-partisan committee to slow it down and bugger it up. He got a clap for that.
The man is an empty suit offering nothing but platitudes, homilies and a nod to the good old Howard days.
Last Question – Means testing on health insurance. Boo Government. Anything to add, Tony? Oh yes please. Aren’t the Government terrible? But I can’t promise anything. So that’s a no to whatever you’re asking for.
Henry
It was an empty, rambling performance that highlighted his distinct lack of depth of understanding of important issues.
Another anecdote!!
Speers adds a supplementary question, more or less on the order of: I know you have a spiel prepared on jobs, so can we hear it? Gladly, David.
It’s a shocker Bk isn’t it.
I despair though that his stupidity will just keep sliding on through.
Ugh, bloody Abbott’s bike rides.
I’ve heard that he’s pretty much muscled out every other politician in the “Pollie Pedal” and has made it all about him, making it nothing more than a mobile campaign booth. Figures.
Thnaks for the running commentary, folks. Dennis Cometti would be proud of you.
Now Abbott shows that he knows NOTHING about the automotive industry.
Left and right hand drive??!!
Ha ha, off the reservation now!
You’re kidding… IPA member or troll?
Tlbd
[One for CTar1]
Appropriate.
Jezus! Now it’s trains. No one likes what I wrote but everyone agrees with it.
I think I’ll tackle my in-tray while they d.r.o.n.e. on.
Peace required.
Henry
Ford in Australia has NEVER attempted a left hand drive version of one of its vehicles.
It is very, very hard and expensive to develop and tool to do as a retro design.
Tony Abbott’s mantra
If I was to sum up the whole thing in one word, it would be: Anaemic.
He completely failed to engage his audience, and he caused a bit of frustration amongst some of his questioners. He didn’t appear to be passionate or even engaged on any of the issues he talked about. They had to be prodded into clapping, and some of them looked to be doing it reluctantly. But they were polite.
Almost every answer he gave was of the “yes, but…” variety. I feel your pain, but on the other hand f*** you.
One thing he didn’t look was confident. He looked like someone thinking, “I just have to keep my bloody head down and think about that finish line. Don’t stuff up before September.”
The attitude from the audience seemed to be that of a bunch of people resigned to having this clown as their next PM, and wondering whether he’s actually going to be of any use to them. They were a bit non-plussed to say the least.
Aguirre
For the two minutes that I could tolerate of Paul Murray on Sky’s follow up program he said tht Abbott was good.
Then I turned it offf.
He started freeballing at the end and was very close to saying “we will tell the Americans to make a left hand drive Ford Territory”.
The man is a fool.
Kieran Gilbert demonstrating he doesn’t quite understand the concept of swinging voters.
Jeger:
Well… if Abbott was in any way consistent he would have given the guy a lecture on economic management. Not living beyond your means, that sort of thing. Basically, the guy got away with ten extra days of work out of his employee each year, and at the end of five years when the worker calls him on it he cries poor. The law says he’s entitled to it, and the guy knew that when he employed him. If he didn’t prepare for that, he’s the fool.
Definitely not an IPA stooge. He scared the crap out of Abbott. The last thing Abbott wanted to do was publicly commit to ripping entitlements from workers.
That’s Jaeger. I must have dopey fingers or something. They’re not doing what my brain tells them to do.
Here’s a classy soprano act