Our choice: Fate or Future

bushfirebill Uncategorized

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.

Electric Broadband Postcard New stamp

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.

Abbott & Costello (Turnbull)

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.

Abbott And Turnbull Space Guns

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.

fRAUDBAND tRUCK

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.

Point Piper Fraudband Node 2

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.

2,081 thoughts on “Our choice: Fate or Future”

  1. ‘The Authority’ has spoken. No more correspondence will be entered into.

    Hmm.

    However, the ‘Senior Staffer in Tony Abbott’s Office’ has not been shown the door.

    The offending sentiment, that a prominent NGO personage will be for the chop, after ‘they’ get into government, has not been repudiated by Abbott either.

    Therefore, one can only assume, that the guillotine will still fall on this person, despite the, obviously alcohol-inspired, loose lips.

    Justice. Abbott style.

  2. The Coalition is having trouble keeping its hubris in check.

    They’re already openly saying who’ll be sacked and who’ll get payback directed their way… anyone to do with Climate Change, including not only Tim Flannery, but viable, large businesses who participate in the Climate Change program, plus public servants being told not to action policy because we’re allegedly in “caretaker” mode.

    At the moment they have the public on their side, wielding baseball bats.

    Let’s hope someone who’s really held in high esteem is mugged and doesn’t keep their mouth shut about it.

  4. Judging from the Twitter outcry directed at PvO, I can see another resignation from social media for the Blue Eyed Boy coming up.

  5. Let’s hope someone who’s really held in high esteem is mugged and doesn’t keep their mouth shut about it.

    The only Australians with a public profile held in high esteem by the people are those vile, ‘Voice of the People’ types in the media. And, as we all know, they sup with the devil.

  8. Granny Anny,

    Welcome to The Pub! Tea, coffee, or something stronger?

    Good point about Texas. Not just the home of the cowboy and the oil rancher, but loudly and proudly the Wackiest State in the Union.

  9. Kieran Gilbert ‏@Kieran_Gilbert 38m

    @vanOnselenP will discuss the “cut the throat” reports & now denials from Abbott staffer with @David_Speers 1330 on #lunchagenda

  10. I’m wondering what Abbott’s staffer was doing at that Qantas dinner. From what I’ve seen the guest list was full of so-called ‘celebrities’ – singers, fashion designers, actors, models, TV presenters, a mob of professional attention seekers. Abbott’s staffer must have been dragged along by a friend.

  11. Threatener is Dr. Mark Roberts, Abbott’s policy director.

    2UE shock jock Paul Murray saying it should all blow over, as anyone can make a mistake. No biggy.

  12. Don’t know if this is for real, I hope it is. PvO has been mocking Abbott for ages about his refusal to join him.

    Bridget O’Flynn ‏@BridgetOFlynn 10m
    On Sunday morning @TonyAbbottMHR is having chat with @vanOnselenP on Sky. Well, won’t that make for fascinating television.

  17. Paul Murray on 2UE now praising Abbott for “dropping silly surplus in first year promise”.

    “Only sensible thing to do” etc. etc.

  18. SK,

    From your link:

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has disciplined his director of policy, Mark Roberts, after he was accused of threatening to “cut the throat” of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, headed by former investment banker and lawyer Andrew Penfold.

    Oh to have been a fly on the wall and to have observed that “disciplining” …

  19. C@tmomma,

    Too, too delicious?

    At one level yes, at another – and more realistic one – no.

    Their instinct would be for swingeing cuts to welfare. And don’t be misled by the “satirical” but modest proposal to cull the bottom 20% – they were probably testing the breeze.

  20. @Fiona

    It probably went something like this.

    “Ahh, ahh, now, ah, Mark, I ahh, know how you feel, and I, ah, agree with you, but, you can’t say things like that in, ah, public, until ah, after the election”

  21. Kirsdarke,

    You’re probably right, but I was hoping for a bit of a tickle-up with the cilice.

  22. Fiona,

    Looks like that early election date was definitely inspired. Looks like the aim of doing a Romney on Abbott and his motley crew may just work! 😉

  23. Fiona
    Alas, someone overlooked my invitation so I had to rely on breathless media accounts of who managed to get in. I don’t think I would have liked it much anyway, a party in a hangar at the airport. So not my style.

  25. So will Mark Roberts have to fall on hs sword, as Julia Gillard’s staffer did after that riot, or will it be yet another case of ‘that’s all right then, nothing to see now, just move along please’.

  26. I see someone is on the ball with seating arrangements at the C’wlth/State meeting today – BO’F is seated immediately on JG’s left.

    He’s the Liberal state premier most likely to co-operate.

  27. Positive news on the NBN and reported in the Telegraph!!! That’s news in itself!

  30. Well, obviously the first question that’ll be put to Abbott is: Ok, so what other areas of funding are you secretly planning to ‘cut the throats’ of?

    I mean, that’s the take-home story out of this, right? It’s not about some thug shooting his mouth off. And it certainly doesn’t end with a little chat to him and an apology for the language. He let a bit of information slip there, and you’d expect our crack team of journalists to be right onto that. Right?

    Right?

    And then of course there’s that little promise to PVO that he’d be able to supply information to him from Abbott’s office. That’s big news too, right? An offer to leak information surely warrants more than a slap on the wrist. It’s a betrayal of his boss. Surely?

    We certainly are well served by the press in this country.

  32. Wasn’t Ettridge supposed to be on 7.30 last night..? did I blink and miss, or did he get bumped for AFL drug texts.. and the PM..?

  33. Thanks leroy. I thought there must’ve been a reason for it escaping the keeper.

  34. [What had been a relatively minor incident established that at least one of Mr Abbott’s closest advisers believes the Coalition has already earned a victory, five months before the election, and is planning the cleanout of enemies under a Coalition government.]

    It’s Liberal Party tradition now – Established by JWH.

  35. Tony Abbott this morning denied that ‘particular phasing’ of the threat made by Dr Mark Roberts but admitted ‘there was an unfortunate exchange between a staffer of mine with someone at dinner last night.’

    So Tony’s quibbling about the words and whether that ‘particular phrasing’ was used. What did he actually say, Tony? “Slash his throat”? “Cut his #$@!ing throat”? And you’re okay with that?

  36. We now have two examples in one day of what Tony Abbott and his team really think about aboriginal issues.
    First we had Liberal MP Dennis Jensen, member for Tangney, tweeting racist comments to an aboriginal woman.
    http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/wa-mp-dennis-jensen-regrets-using-twitter-in-koori-argument/story-fnhocxo3-1226623487083

    Then we had Tony Abbott’s director of policy threatening to cut the throat of the head of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. What a charming lot they are. It makes you wonder just what Abbott and Co have planned for aborigines should they win government.

    Ken Wyatt should resign from the Liberal Party and sit on the cross benches in protest. Why would he want to be associated with this mob of mongrels?

  37. I maintain it will be the hubris that does them in. That and the supreme lack of talent across their whole front bench. Amateurs.

  38. It’s all right, Leone. Tony’s got it covered. He’s planning to spend a few days riding his bike around up there, all expenses paid, caring deeply about them. And regrettably, though he would really like to continue the funding, quality of life issues must be secondary to paying off the debt. Though if there are any indigenous people out there earning more than $250K, he’s going to do all he can to protect their super. And they’ll feel the benefit of cutting the carbon tax immediately, so it’s not all bad.

  39. Very informative article by Lenore Taylor, from the end of 2011, when Abbott was on the ropes and on the nose a little bit in his own party, and so she got some leaks out of the Liberal Party about how his office runs the show(plus there’s a little bit about Mark Roberts, who is from the Bayswater Branch of the Liberal Party in Victoria, in case anyone is interested 🙂 ) :

    http://www.smh.com.au/national/liberal-doubts-aired-at-crash-through-tactics-20111209-1onme.html

  41. What I have never been able to fathom is how Indigenous Australians, like Noel Pearson, and all the rest of the Conservative Aboriginal politicians for that matter, can stand to be in the same room as a party hell bent on their Assimilation into Australian society, with very few special privileges accorded their ‘First Australians’ status?

  44. [Wow PVO texted Abbotts office early that night & let him know his staffer was acting deplorably so Abbott had plenty of time to whitewash]

  45. Paul Bongiorno ‏@PaulBongiorno 37s
    “slit your throat when we get into government” referring to funding for a not for profit aboriginal foundation, a mere trifle for Trolls.

  46. [@vanOnselenP has just confirmed to Britney @David_Speers on #Slynews that they tried to bribe him & he has contacted Abbott’s office]

  49. OK –
    Pvo said he was at the function with his wife and was having a chat with Penfold and his wife when Mark Roberts ‘stumbled’ up, obviously drunk. He started by being deliberately obnoxious to PvO, then started to talk to Penflod. The conversation seemed friendly, PvO turned away but could hear what was being said. Suddenly Roberts turned nasty and said he would either slit or cut ‘your throat’ (PvO isn’t sure which word was used), then he heard cutting of funding mentioned. He isn’t sure if it referred to cutting of current funding or to the increased funding Penfold’s organisation is after.

    PvO then talked to Penfold, straight after, and to his wife who had seen the throat cutiing gesture Roberts had made but had not heard what was said.

    PvO had texted someone he knew in Abbott’s office straight away to inform them. Roberts had come up to him later, contrite and trying to smooth things over and that’s when he offered to be an informant.

    There was a woman with Roberts, a staffer who works under him, her name is Katherine Lees. She was ‘perfectly sober’ and heard everything that happened.

    Tony Abbott has not spoken to PvO about the incident but his office has. They say they do not consider the investigation into it all to be closed.

  50. leonetwo

    [Tony Abbott has not spoken to PvO about the incident but his office has. They say they do not consider the investigation into it all to be closed.]

    Sorry who is meant by “they”?

Comments are closed.