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I don't know how Sydney Lawrence is remunerated but it's certainly not for the objectivity of his message.
The Federal Government's done everything it can (and has had to fight every inch of the way) to try to transform Telstra from an obstructive, lazy, feather-bedded, money-gouging, protected public service monopoly into a modern competitive telco.
Any transformation's been resisted by the unions, the media and scaremongering in the rural lobby.
The emergence of the G9 at least puts some light at the end of the tunnel (and I'm saying that with over $50,000 at stake as a Telstra shareholder).
Let's give the government credit for what it's been able to achieve and let's support it with getting on with the job.
If the Federal Government makes a policy decision that it's in everyones' interest to have competition, surely it has the mandate to do so without answering to Telstra.
If Telstra wants to move forward, let it compete by providing a decent, honest service to its customers and stop playing pathetic politics by wanting to join up with the ALP in order to force its way with either party.
Labor's vague broadband promises are only a thinly disguised plan to revert back to the bad old days of a union-dominated Telstra monopoly.
To me the vested interests being expressed in that direction are pretty obvious.
All must agree that the Howard Government has treated Telstra in a very unAustralian way. To try to damage Telstra is wrong and I believe Mr Howard will pay dearly at election time.
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The long-awaited separation of Telstra
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Telstra has had a desire to build a fast fibre network in Australia for some time only to be frustrated by Prime Minister Howard and Senator Coonan.
The reason for the Government belligerence and hostility to Telstra originated with the arrival in Australia of Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo. After the Government sold Telstra it was their belief that things would continue (with the Government running Telstra) only to be enlightened by Sol that things had changed and Telstra would now be run as a company owned by the Australian shareholders. This freaked the Government denominators out who then set their collective sights to teach Telstra a lesson.
As the story has played out Howard and Coonan, by their megalomaniacal desire to show their born to rule attitude, now find themselves in a monumental pickle. Having wasted one billion dollars of Australian taxpayer money on a duplicating ( and inferior) system, the waste of which will become obvious if it ever gets built, we now see the procrastination of Howard and Coonan concerning fast fibre.
The Government is now entangled in such a web of deception that they have taken the easy option and intend hold the whole exercise over until after the next election. Only problem for them is they will, in all probability, be turfed out at that election and all this is self inflicted.