There is no benefit to taxpayers or the Australian economy from spending $43 billion or more on something that turns out to have a commercial value of a fraction of that when it is finished and sold. Risks like this are better born by the private sector – so shareholders, not Australian taxpayers, lose out if the plan goes off the rails.
In the end the NBN reflects Labor’s cargo cult mentality. Rudd/Gillard Labor thinks you can fix schools by putting computers in classrooms, you can fix climate change by putting pink batts in roofs, and you can fix telecommunications by building huge pipes.
Clever governments understand that you fix problems by empowering initiative and enterprise: by policy and regulatory settings that steer, not row. Labor thinks it can row, but it invariably sinks the boat.
The Coalition’s broadband alternative is less risky and less costly. Lofty talk about vision and imagination is all very well. But Australians deserve policies that are practical, deliverable and affordable too – and nowhere is this more the case than for broadband.
