This afternoon Communications Minister Stephen Conroy described his opposite, Senator Nick Minchin, as a Luddite as he took questions from reporters on the Opposition's attempt to block the government's wide-ranging telecommunications industry reform legislation, which includes provisions to force the break-up of Telstra.
Opposition Communications spokesperson Bruce Billson has said the Coalition will attempt to block the Federal government's proposed use of the AU$2 billion Communications Fund to build its national FTTN network in the Senate.
The Federal Government has been told by lobbying group GetUp to abandon its internet filtering plans, following the decision of a second internet service provider to withdraw from a planned trial.
The Liberals has called on the Commonwealth Auditor-General to conduct an immediate investigation into the tender process for the national fibre-to-the-node network, saying the procedure has been dogged by concerns over value for money and transparency.
Opposition Communications spokesperson, Bruce Billson, has misfired in an attack on the Federal government over the use of the AU$2.4 billion Communications Fund to back the national fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network.
It was interesting to witness Conroy's recent enthusiasm to spruik the NBN's role in supporting the Smart Grid, Smart City initiative. What a pity that Conroy hadn't yet seen the damning report from the Victorian auditor-general about that state's smart-meter roll-out.
Optus' involvement in the controversial government blacklist project could fall on either side of the fence. In kissing the ring, is Optus conceding that censorship is inevitable or hatching a scheme to discredit Conroy's folly from within?
The government dumped its well-intentioned bidders and spent the day awash in adulation from an industry that suddenly felt all its Christmases had come at once. But isn't this the same government that, two weeks ago, was warning it had to ditch key election promises for lack of funding?
Rejecting Telstra's proposal, after all, is the only conclusion Conroy can reach: as someone whose entire philosophy is built around transparency and process, he simply cannot keep Telstra as part of the NBN bidding process anymore.
Like many, I expected Telstra's dismissal was inevitable, given that it had openly flouted the NBN's guidelines and attempted to bend the process to its own wishes. But who would have expected it so soon?
A simple way forward for the National Broadband Network and for Telstra has now emerged.
This afternoon Communications Minister Stephen Conroy described his opposite, Senator Nick Minchin, as a Luddite as he took questions from reporters on the Opposition's attempt to block the government's wide-ranging telecommunications industry reform legislation, which includes provisions to force the break-up of Telstra.
Stephen Conroy's opus on the future direction of Australia's Digital Economy mainly curates existing success stories and government policies, and does little to demonstrate any form of roadmap to take the nation out of the Dark Ages.
Optus CEO Paul O'Sullivan had it right when he said that the new National Broadband Network would be a commercial failure unless there was only one network that included Telstra's fixed-line assets.
From dead parrots to ACCC lawsuits, the National Broadband Network and Fake Stephen Conroy, it's like Telstra is lost in T.S. Eliot's epic poem The Wasteland.
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