Vendors and privacy advocates alike have expressed their reservations over the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Finance Act enacted by Parliament last year, but it appears unlikely that the Labor government will review the legislation.
Bruce Billson, the Liberal communications spokesperson, has taken aim at Labor's plans to draw on money from the previous government's communications fund to build its fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network.
With legislation obliging telcos to share their network infrastructure details passed by the House of Representatives last night, it has been revealed that the government may compensate carriers for sharing their intellectual property.
ALP MP Stephen Smith told the federal House of Representatives last night that his party would support legislation merging the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), although the government had yet to address several key concerns.
The Coalition has thrown a major spanner in the works of Labor's broadband strategy by locking down the AU$2 billion fund that Labour was going to use to finance its fibre-to-the-node network.
If there was ever evidence that the stoush over broadband had gotten personal, it came when Telstra's sour-grapes mentality led it to sue Helen Coonan, personally, for claimed procedural flaws in the OPEL contract.
Now that Minister Stephen Conroy has played his hand regarding Telstra's separation, the hard part begins.
Conroy's blind adherence to his net filtering plan will abandon net neutrality ideals and push ISPs down a slippery slope of unprecedented responsibility for a callously politicised Australian internet.
Labor's fibre-to-the-premises NBN was meant to be an act of freedom, a breaking-free from 100 years of copper infrastructure legacy and the start of something new. So why in the world are we still discussing Telstra's copper network?
Getting Senator Stephen Conroy's regulatory reform for the telecommunications industry through the parliament would need support from the Senate. On Twisted Wire we ring around to see which parties are supportive and which are against.
Former Optus executive Paul Fletcher's book "Wired Brown Land? Telstra's Battle for Broadband" details the history of broadband communication in our nation and highlights why it is impossible that Telstra will give up in its fight for dominance, despite the wounds it has recently taken.
Opinion: Conroy should end this futile tender process. Call Telstra's McGauchie and his executives in and read them the riot act. Appoint someone with appropriate credentials and resources not some panel to then negotiate a commercial deal on behalf of taxpayers.
In Washington and Silicon Valley circles, betting has already begun on who will be the nation's first chief technology officer.
This is the second part of our Q&A series between IT Minister Daryl Williams and his political foe, Kate Lundy. To read Part I, please click here.
Communications minister Daryl Williams and his political foe Kate Lundy debate on a wide range of issues, including three most pressing problems facing Australia's ICT industry.
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