Coalition “conned” Tasmania on the CBN, says Premier

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Hobart, Tasmania: Cascade Brewery Tour

news Labor Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings has accused the Coalition Federal Government of having “conned the Tasmanian public” with respect to its plans for the Coalition’s Broadband Network project in the state, having failed to commit to a full Fibre to the Premises rollout despite the State Government’s willingness to work with Canberra on the issue.

Many Tasmanians believe the Coalition, specifically Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, committed the Coalition’s Broadband Network rollout (CBN) in the state to a full Fibre to the Premises deployment during last year’s Federal Election campaign. However, in fact, Turnbull never explicitly made such a promise; stating only that a Coalition Government would honour construction contracts signed by NBN Co. Such contracts can be modified.

Subsequently, in November, the Tasmanian State Government dusted off plans up to eight year old to string optical fibre cables over power poles in a bid to speed up the deployment of the Coalition’s Broadband Network infrastructure in the state.

In a statement issued yesterday, and during the state’s election campaign, Labor Premier Lara Giddings said the Federal Coalition Government was continuing to stall on its CBN commitment to Tasmania, and the uncertainty was holding back business. Giddings said she had finally received a reply to her request to Federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ensure the CBN rollout was delivered as Giddings claimed the Coalition had promised.

“It has taken two months, and Mr Turnbull has still failed to give me or Tasmanians any guarantee about fibre-to-the-premise [CBN] rollout,” the Premier said. “His letter did not even refer to the current status of Tasmania’s rollout, and failed to even acknowledge the Liberals’ pre-election promise. The Liberals have conned the Tasmanian public. For all their rhetoric about honouring a fibre-to-the-premise rollout, they have crawled away from their promise.”

Giddings said she had visited an allied health practice in Glenorchy which was still waiting for certainty about the Coalition’s Broadband Network.

“This practice is a prime example of one that would be able to invest in and offer better technology, and ultimately, a higher level of service to its clients if it had access to the [CBN] as it was promised,” the Premier said. “As it stands, Revive Motional Health is wanting to use cutting edge technology to provide even better health care and services for its clients but is stuck not knowing when, how of even if the [CBN] will be delivered to its premises.”

Giddings said the Coalition’s failure to give certainty around the broadband rollout also meant that for a business reliant on recruiting physiotherapists from interstate, the inability to access latest technology potentially made recruiting harder. “It makes sense that allied health professionals want to work where they can use a full range of technologies to not only better treat their patients, but to ensure their own professional development is maximised. The [CBN] opens up enormous possibilities in these fields – but the employees at this clinic are still waiting.”

Giddings said the Federal Government had not said anything further about the State Government’s alternative plan to use power poles to deliver the Coalition’s Broadband Network, apart from that it was still being considered.

“The Liberals have broken a promise to Tasmanians. Before the election they said they would honour the contracts for fibre-to-the-premise, now they are talking about mixed technologies and barely acknowledging that a Tasmanian rollout is still underway,” the Labor politician said. “I will continue fighting for what Tasmanians deserve. I want to see clinics like this one being able to offer its clients the very best in treatment, backed by the very best in technology and communications support,” Giddings said.

Turnbull issued a statement to Computerworld claiming that Giddings’ statement was “a rather pathetic attempt at scaremongering by Premier Giddings”, and pointed out that NBN Co’s contractor in the state, Visionstream, had suffered delays, but that the Coalition had put the state’s rollout “back on track”.

opinion/analysis
My opinion on this issue is detailed in an article published in Delimiter 2.0 (paywalled). As I wrote in October:

“Malcolm Turnbull never specifically promised Tasmanians that the all-fibre NBN rollout in the state would be completed as originally planned. But if there is any one state in Australia that deserves to have a universal Fibre to the Premises National Broadband Network, it’s the Apple Isle, which has been a perpetual broadband backwater for the past decade and more.”

Image credit: Eli Duke, Creative Commons

49 COMMENTS

  1. Slimy as always, Turnbull created the impression that Tasmania was “safe” and “certain”, offering empty reassurances while leaving himself a back door by never actually uttering words he could be held to.

    When challenged on this false impression he gave, he resorts to labeling the Premier of Tasmania as “pathetic” and accusing her of “scaremongering”. Stay classy, as always, Mr Turnbull!

    I say, take a good hard look at your own behaviour Mr Turnbull, take the rafter out of your own eye before trying to remove the twig from another’s eye!

    • “Slimy as always, Turnbull created the impression that Tasmania was “safe” and “certain”, offering empty reassurances while leaving himself a back door by never actually uttering words he could be held to.”

      Yep, that’s exactly what he did. By loosely saying that contracts would be honoured, he certainlyfooled a lot of people into thinking the NBN would proceed as normal under a coalition government. It was only after the election he added that little detail about *where work has commenced . And of course the newly revised CBN has drastically narrowed the fibre footprint now anyway.

      It would be nice to think Lara’s fibre-over-power-pole plan was being seriously considered for Tas, but I get the impression that the proposal was burnt in a trashcan the day it was received by Ziggy and Turnbull (while they laughed maniacally).

  2. Well it is what the people voted for. There were large swings to the liberals in Tasmania. While we might not agree with what is going on its not like they (Tasmanians) have anyone else to blame.

  3. The Labor-Green’s government has been absolutely deplorable in Tasmania for the past few years and that has been reflected in the federal elections and will be seen soon in the state elections.

    This does not mean Tasmanian citizens are not absolutely passionate about and highly support the NBN in its previous form. Everyone was excited about the potential for the NBN, upgrades from our constant dropouts and increases in line speeds from about 3-4 mbps max download speeds, not to mention atrocious upload speeds.

    Tasmania is as Renai said a broadband backwater compared to the mainland, even in our main cities. Full ADSL2+ speeds or even cable speeds are just a dream in Tasmania and we will likely benefit the most out of the full NBN rollout with our stagnating population and precarious local economy and failing manufacturing job sector.

  4. My mate moved to Tasmania last year to a small town called mole creek from Perth W.A, his internet is better now then it was ever in Osborne park, as he getting over 20 Mbps. Which is far better then the 4-6 Mbps he was getting. I live in walking distance from Perth CBD, And I have two adsl2 lines one gets about 1mbps the other gets 4-8 Mbps. So I have to ask the question is Tasmania really a backwater for internet speeds?

    • Wow, the evidence you present is overwhelming, I guess no use looking at the overall state. You have one mate with good internet, I guess all the evidence to the contrary can be ignored.

        • Really renai? Ned Kelly is basically calling you, me, and anyone else claiming that Tasmania’s broadband is below par are liars on the basis of ‘I’ve got a mate who says different’ and my net is crap too. Never mind that some of us live in Tasmania with crap telecommunications for the majority being an everyday fact of life.

          and you think Lionel’s reply is impolite? For simply pointing out that allegedly knowing second or third hand of one example of GOOD internet in this benighted state, and one example of BAD internet on the mainland does not provide an adequate sample from which to draw conclusions…

          • What is that evidence?
            It would be interesting to see an actual current breakdown of of the states average speeds to see if Tasmania is still that much of a BB backwater that it deserves special treatment (i.e full FTTP rollout) over and above and possibly to the detriment of the rollout in other states.

            As ozidave points out, Mole Creek, like many other areas in Tas is connected to the NBN which is why it’s so fast and no longer a BB backwater.
            A quick look at the Tas rollout map does seem to indicate that whatever the case was in the past, many many more areas than just the one Ned Kelly’s mate lives in, have very good broadband.

    • It’s a fair enough question. I live in Hobart and can tell you that several suburbs (and small towns such as Smithton) were among the first in Australia to receive FTTP as part of the early trials, and during the first stage of the proper rollout. The vast majority of us still haven’t been connected though.

      I received an ‘NBN coming to your area’ pamphlet about a year before the federal election, but due to the asbestos scare (and delays caused by the incompetence of Visionstream) that never happened.

      It’s infuriating being stuck on 12mbps ADSL (and knowing the best I can hope for this decade is probably FTTN) but relatively speaking I still count myself as one of the lucky ones, given the poor broadband penetration elesewhere across the state. Several of my friends have much lower sync rates, or cant even get ADSL at all.

      FTTP would be the perfect solution to help kickstart Tasmania’s economy and give it a competitive edge. Its a beautiful place to live, but its no secret that our economy isn’t exactly booming right now. Its been a snowball effect too, with more and more people leaving the state to seek employment.

      Anyone with an ounce of vision should be able to see why proceeding with FTTP for Tasmania should be a top priority in order for Tasmania to thrive again. I for one support Lara’s alternative method of delivery over power poles too (even if that does bring a few problems of its own).

      • Here we go, I quote

        “It’s infuriating being stuck on 12mbps ADSL (and knowing the best I can hope for this decade is probably FTTN)”

        That comment in its self royally annoys me. Id gladly take a 12mbps ADSL connection anyway. my entire estate is stuck on a RIM with a SUB 1mpbs service. During school holidays it hits 0.09mpbs, but the upload is always 0.32mbps no matter what. Is just congestion on the down stream (All Telstras fault)

        I agree with everything you said, But the jealousy of your 12mbps makes me mad and think you should not be complain.

        Problem with Labor NBN was they where replacing year old fiber with their own in CBD’s when they should of been focusing more on the congested parts first. My understanding with the Liberals is the areas needing upgrades will be hit first.. Then again being rural i probably wont get upgrades until in the 2020’s.

        My other understanding is that Rim’s are suppose to be in use until 2050 before decommissioned.

        • “Problem with Labor NBN was they where replacing year old fiber with their own in CBD’s when they should of been focusing more on the congested parts first.”

          Evidence?

        • “Here we go, I quote
          “It’s infuriating being stuck on 12mbps ADSL (and knowing the best I can hope for this decade is probably FTTN)”

          “That comment in its self royally annoys me……”

          Umm, way to chop my sentence in half, and quote me out of context mate! If you’d bothered to quote my full sentence, this is what people would have read:

          “It’s infuriating being stuck on 12mbps ADSL (and knowing the best I can hope for this decade is probably FTTN) but relatively speaking I still count myself as one of the lucky ones, given the poor broadband penetration elesewhere across the state. Several of my friends have much lower sync rates, or cant even get ADSL at all.”

          Not only do I say that I count myself as “one of the lucky ones” but I draw attention to the fact that my own friends have sync rates below mine!

          Everything is relative mate. What you don’t know is that I share my connection with three other people. Even two people streaming YouTube at the same time is enough to bring the connection to its knees. I also know I’ll be stuck on this connection for years, rather than being upgraded to the 100/25 connection we are going to desperately need for the 30+ internet-connected devices already in this house!

          1mbps upload is still only 1mbps upload no matter how you cut it, and it already limits my productivity hugely when it comes to uploading anything.

          “the jealously of your connection makes me mad and I think you should not complain

          Well that jealousy is an emotion of your own doing and to be “mad” about it is highly misplaced anger if directed at me or my connection. If there’s one person who deeply sympathises with the crappy connections across this country its me. I was stuck on dialup, then dual channel ISDN 128k at my last house (64kbps per phone line) due to a RIM, which was hideously expensive and horribly slow. And every time someone rang my connection speed would drop back to 64kbps. Ive been there, and its painful so believe me I get it.

          As I said I also have several mates with crappy connections, and because I live in Tasmania I’m aware of several people without access to ADSL at all. I hate it as much as you do, and this was what the NBN was supposed to fix.

          I get it that you connection currently sucks balls, and that you therefore feel more entitled to an upgrade than I, but the truth is we should all feel equally as entitled to a fibre broadband upgrade this decade. Unless we want to fall drastically behind the rest of the world anyway.

          Please don’t twist my words to mean something they were never intended to. Quote my sentences in full next time and you wont run into this problem again :)

    • You are aware that Mole Creek is hooked into the NBN with a fixed wireless tower in the middle of town. Prior to that most of Mole Creek couldn’t get anything more than dial up.

      • Hey Ozidave I don’t think Mole Creek had dial -up but they did have the Cooee System of Communication.

  5. Amongst others, the TasICT industry group believed it was a commitment from the Minister-to-be at the time. They even put out a press release saying (along the lines of) they’d met with the minister and it was a commitment.

    If it was not a commitment, the impression was certainly given that it was.

    I think now they are getting pretty cranky. http://www.tasict.com.au/_blog/News/post/still-no-answers-on-tasmanian-nbn-rollout/

    It’s fairly clear to me at least, that they said one thing before the election with no intention of ever doing it, and are now doing the opposite.

    Meanwhile, there are people who can’t leverage this century’s technology because they are stuck with dialup internet, unreliable and over-congested 3G, or are limited by other technologies available.

    • Turnbull NEVER committed to a full FTTP rollout in Tas. I looked into it extensively at the time. The people who keep saying this mistook some other coalition figures’ statements at the time, as I wrote back then. I don’t know why ppl continue to miss this point.

  6. As far as I’m concerned..”honouring contracts” means just that!. They were executing ftth, and that’s what the Tasmanians elected to get..No weasel words please..

      • Do you really think the general voting public understood the fine print of honouring contracts? They went to the elections expecting the current ftth roll out to continue. They were conned into believing the “Vibe” of the contracts, not expecting them to be subject to twisted legalities.

          • Ha! Yes, but nobody was expecting to have to get a lawyer to interpret their leet speek.
            w3 w!11 |-|0|\|0µ2 (0|\|724(75, |8µ7 |)0 |=77|\| !|\|5734|).. !|)!075

          • Come on, he was being deliberately deceptive. You have to take into context what he was asked. He is still playing the weasel word game with TAS, claiming he answered them when all he did was produce more weasel words. Really, when you start supporting get out of jail free cards or exact wordings of replies, when it was clear that he has the TAS government believing he was going to complete FTTH. Come on. If a mate pulled a swift one on you in a similar fashion you’d be telling him to piss off.

          • Turnbull said the exact same thing about Tasmania as he did about the mainland — with the exact same phrasing — and nobody on the mainland appears to have taken it the same way as in Tasmania.

            Face it: The Coalition never promised full FTTP for Tasmania. That’s just the truth. Happy to be proven wrong …

          • I know he never said it. He said he would honour existing contracts. They took that to mean that FTTH was being rolled out, not that the contracts would be changed. Turnbull never said yes we will roll out in Tasmania, he never said no either, he said they would honour existing contracts. Sorry if you accept stuff like that, but I don’t. More fool the Tassie government for not insisting he answered clearly. Though I don’t think they would have much luck there.
            What has the world come to when politicians are using tactics usually the domain of confidence tricksters?

          • Well then more fool them…

            Perhaps it’s more indicative that the ALP was turfed for other reasons and everyone presumes that Tasmanians are dumb enough to suddenly trust politicians even to do as much as they actually said (let alone more than what they committed to).

            Give me a break. Newman and Abbott, as two examples, got in because the ALP disenfranchised and chased away a number of people that could previously be considered rusted on. Gidding’s is desperately trying to shore up her position in government for the oncoming election, as can be seen by her dumping the greens…

            http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/giddings-dumps-greens-ministers-vows-to-never-share-power/story-fnj4f7k1-1226803658414

            “”No matter what the election outcome, Labor will not again offer Cabinet seats to the Greens,” she said.

            “There will be no arrangement, no power sharing with the Greens.”

            Ms Giddings said she understood people would be “sceptical” of the promise, after Labor broke a similar pledge at the 2010 election.”

            I’d say it’s ironic that the state government actually, literally broke their promise, but is calling out MT despite keeping the letter of his so far, except it’s a surprise to no one…

          • Cool, I learned a whole lot about the FTTP in Tasmania issue from your response there.

          • I’m going to grudgingly agree w/ Renai here. But only on the point that Turnbull did not promise full FTTP. And he did this by using standard political speak to get everyone a false sense of security.

            Labor may have promised full FTTP to Tasmania. That didn’t mean *all* the contracts were finalised before election. And if the main map “changes” were anything to go by any build that “wasn’t set in stone” Coalition was more than happy to drop ASAP on the original map.

            Lesson here?

            Pay attention to what the party says and compare it to what the party’s position on the policy. And take it all w/ a grain of salt.

      • Actually, honoring existing contracts DOES mean FTTP, if that’s what the existing contract says.

        they never said that they would modify existing contracts to suit themselves.

        • “Actually, honoring existing contracts DOES mean FTTP, if that’s what the existing contract says.”

          These contracts all have escape clauses allowing them to be modified. I’ll say it again: The Coalition never promised full FTTP for Tasmania. I wrote hundreds of articles on their policy. It was very clear — FTTN, not FTTP. I don’t know how Tasmanians still think they were promised FTTP by the Coalition. The rest of the nation was able to understand … why did Tasmania get stuck on this point?

          • “These contracts all have escape clauses allowing them to be modified.”

            Totally irrelevant weasel words. If Abbott and Turnbull want to stick to the exact wording of what they said, then they can be held accountable for that exact wording. “We will honour existing contracts” is not “we will honour existing contracts after we’ve changed them”.

          • Mate.

            Did you read the Coalition’s broadband policy released in April 2013? It focused on FTTN. Nowhere in that document was it stated that Tasmania would be full-FTTP. That’s the reality.

          • The same document which also claimed it was fully costed, FTTP would cost $90bn and theirs was 1/3 of that. Their wording was deliberately misleading and meant to mislead and misdirect the public from knowing the truth behind the coalitions policy. It’s indefensible.

          • OK, put it this way.

            MT had complaints by the Tassy government that he wasn’t going to complete the FTTH NBN rollout.

            His response to this was that they were not telling the truth, that he was going to honour all existing contracts.

            Tassy government were satisfied with this. Believing the FTTH rollout would be completed.

            MT never set them straight on that until now, well after it could have made a difference.

          • http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/453867/turnbull_coalition_will_honour_existing_nbn_contracts/

            “Shadow communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has confirmed a Coalition government would honour existing contracts for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

            However, Turnbull said the Coalition would consider negotiating a round of further contracts to complete the roll out of a national network based on fibre-to-the-node technology, instead of the fibre-to-the-premises model currently being employed for the NBN build.

            “You might complete the contacts that you’ve already got for fibre-to-the-premises and then enter into new ones for fibre-to-the-node,” he told Computerworld Australia.”

            Granted this is Feb 2013/pre-their policy release in April (iirc) and MT says ‘might’, hence the confusion.

          • “I don’t know how Tasmanians still think they were promised FTTP by the Coalition. The rest of the nation was able to understand … why did Tasmania get stuck on this point?”

            Not all of us think that! In fact I’ve never met anyone in person that truly beleived that. Would appreciate it if you’d stop lumping the whole state together as though we share an uninformed collective mind. Sure, we are small but there are still 480,000 people here, not all of whom are so easily brainwashed by slimy conservative politicans :)

            I can assure you that very few (if any) informed tech-heads (the ones that actually follow the communications/ICT industry) were fooled by a single word Turnbull said last year, whether it was statements he made 12 months out from the election, or 12 hours – every geek I know hates him, and voted Labor. It was blindingly obvious to everyone I knew that Turnbull wasnt seriously committing to anything, but rather he was deliberatly leaving his vague comments open to interpration. However you can’t expect the same level of attention from laymen voters (or for their ‘bullshit metres’ to be tuned to the right frequency to understand dry technical details). Along with the misinformation spread on the news (from people either misinterpreting Turnbull, or deliberately attempting to call his bluff) I can understand why a lot of the country were fooled into thinking contracts would continue. I don’t believe Tasmania is a special case in this regard (apart from our premier playing politics with the issue leading up to the state election).

            In any case – speaking of Maclolm fooling people – Wasn’t it Delimiter that essentially took Malcolm at his word, and stated that the coalition’s altervative policy (while grossly inferior to Labor’s) was still a serious alternative policy worthy of our consideration? Now its referred to as the CBN here and the rest is history. The point being Maclom directly and indirectly fooled a lot of people, by not filling in the gaps, by not correcting the misinformation out there, that was misinterpreted from his own deliberatly-vague statements, or those of his colleagues.

            Regardless of FTTP contracts, his absolute aim was to fool voters into thinking the Coalition’s NBN was better value, that it would be delivered much sooner (and “more affordably to the taxpayer”) and deliver similar types of speeds. And obviously their plan worked to a huge degree, particuarly at a time when so many people were fed up the massive delays and rollout problems with Labor’s NBN.

  7. It’s an unfortunate situation that the impression ministers give the public doesn’t matter at all. More often than not, we do not remember words, but our interpretation of them.

    When’s the last time you could repeat exactly, word-for-word a complex (and often) statement to the press. When I read transcripts of politicians’ press releases (in particular MT’s in relation to the NBN) it is very difficult to understand – take this statement for example:

    “Where there is a binding contract, for example with VisionStream, if VisionStream were to do its part of the contract then we would do ours which is obviously to pay them for the work they’re doing, in accordance with the contract. But at this stage there is no work going on and that doesn’t, I struggle to see how that can be in compliance with the terms of the contract. But again, I don’t want to – this is a detailed contractual matter with NBN Co and VisionStream – but my only point is that this management of this project and the lack of progress on this project is Labor’s work, or Labor’s lack of work, they made it, they knew the project was failing and the company itself had dramatically cut its forecasts at the time of the election but they kept those revised forecasts hidden because they didn’t want Tasmanian’s to know the full extent of their failure.”

    All you hear from that (on the radio) is ‘if’ the contractor honours it’s part of the contract then they will. To the layperson this is pretty simple – the contracts will be honoured. In reality, the contracts were not being honoured by VisionStream – cost blowout etc. – and they won’t be honoured.

    Choosing your words carefully and combining it with your body language, you can give the impression of one statement whilst legally making another and this is something politicians do to great effect. If more people were educated about this maybe they wouldn’t be so willing to invest in their impression of a politician rather than the reality.

  8. I will say this in defence of Malcolm Turnbull in regards to his commitment to honour the existing full FTTP rollout in Tasmania. He has always maintained that he will honour existing contracts, but that Visionstream was not fulfilling their end of the contract.

    The slowdown (basically shutdown) of NBN rollout in Tasmania was a result of the asbestos scare (before this there was a lot of activity) and through attempts to renegotiate a higher pay-rate for its workers to complete the job.

    TasICT and the Premier Lara Gidding’s have been very outspoken in the media criticising Malcolm Turnbull of abandoning Tasmania in regards to the statewide rollout and even I have to admit twisting his statements to support their claims. While I admire their passion for the NBN and it is one I share, it is clear that Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition never actually promised anything and went back on his word. His statement about Tasmania is the same one today that it has been for months now.

    While I admit Renai that in the Coalition’s broadband policy it never directly stated Tasmania will be a full-rollout of FTTP and Fixed-wireless as promised. In my mind I see it very unlikely that Tasmania will not continue to receive this current form of rollout anyway. FTTN will not be as effective anyway in Tasmania as a lot of the Telstra copper from talking to former Telecom and PMG employees is that a lot of the copper is very old, even in Launceston and Hobart.

    So as a Tasmanian that is yet to receive an NBN connection I am annoyed at the current lack of knowledge of when I will receive such a connection under the new government and broadband policy, but I am in no way inclined that Malcolm Turnbull conned Tasmania on the NBN or that Tasmania will be adversely affected anyway in terms of rollout strategy.

  9. @ Jack

    “I will say this in defence of Malcolm Turnbull in regards to his commitment to honour the existing full FTTP rollout in Tasmania. He has always maintained that he will honour existing contracts, but that Visionstream was not fulfilling their end of the contract.”

    “The slowdown (basically shutdown) of NBN rollout in Tasmania was a result of the asbestos scare (before this there was a lot of activity) and through attempts to renegotiate a higher pay-rate for its workers to complete the job.”

    And yet when Malcolm was in opposition these were “all” NBNCo and especially Mike Quigley’s fault…

    • “And yet when Malcolm was in opposition these were “all” NBNCo and especially Mike Quigley’s fault…”
      He is still blaming them too.
      “Wow, I am really surprised at how bad things really are. It is now going to cost twice our “fully costed $29.1 billion”, we will supply – not deliver, 25 Mbps by 2016, no wait, 2019 to 30 % fewer households”
      I think he is the most dishonest politician in our nation’s history.
      He plans to give us some incremental broadband speed increase rather than a new communication infrastructure project. Tasmania is just an example of the patchwork process he is ‘planning’.
      Guess what? It already is a patchwork of a network with extreme variability across the nation. We pay for ADSL2+ and receive 10 % of such. MT will be perpetuating this for a generation. Rather than making a generational investment, he is ensuring we will spend our money twice. So sad really… And just to avoid saying the FTTP project was the end game and a good idea. Petty politician.

      P.S. And yes, I would have the same complaint if he was Labor or Green. Political partisan politics ruined this project.

      • Indeed Andrew…

        And to think, having that list of current complete fuck-ups (c/-Mal) you just mentioned and not even one node in sight anywhere, these are same people who previously lambasted NBNCo Mk1…Yes NBNCo Mk1 who built everything up from scratch… for missing roll out targets.

        :/ amazing

        • Agreed Alex: “…these are same people who previously lambasted NBNCo Mk1”
          The review by MT’s friends was borderline fraudulent too.
          They extrapolated the start up costs and rates of installation for the NBN to overstate both the time and cost.
          Their own CBN scenarios were given appropriate cost reductions and installation rate increases over time.
          They ignored the gains made in timing and cost to date, completely misrepresenting the facts.
          My suspicious mind tells me that MT and his cronies have more to gain from a CBN network than their name plaque on 90,000 nodes, power poles, transformers, air conditioners, concrete slabs, 500,000 batteries, VDSL modems etc, etc.
          I smell a rat.

  10. Coalition didn’t con anyone. What they did, is what the Coalition always does. Have non-specific phrasing in policy and public statement.

    Granted, Greens and Labor aren’t that much better – but if you bought the whole notion that NBNco would just continue on, as is (at least in Tasmania) then I have to quote ‘The Castle’:

    “Tell ’em they’re dreamin!”

    Turnbull’s original brief from the (then) Leader of the Opposition was to “destroy the NBN”. This (rather pointed) phrasing has been softened, but it’s clear that FTTH was at best an after-thought, and *might have* been a user-pays option.

    As was predicted (at least to some degree) it’s become a bit of a proverbial clusterf*ck as the Minister for Internets has been swept up in the sales pitch from people sprucking HFC, wireless and anything at all that isn’t really (what has become a bit politically toxic) FTTN.

    The reason there’s no commitment to Tasmania is the same reason there’s bugger-all for the mainland. Turnbull doesn’t have to.

  11. Living in Perth and within a short five minute drive to the city centre I understand what Ned is saying, my Internet is 3-4Mbit as well, drops out and took a year to obtain. There’s actually no phone lines available in my street and if you complain hard enough you’ll end up with a sat phone provided by Telstra.

    It was only a few months ago they installed a pit and ran some conduit in my street, this was due to interference from the underground power lines that were installed, prior to this is was direct bury cable.

    I do feel for Tasmania but granted how many people I know in the same situation as myself in Perth I don’t believe for a second that residents in Tasmania are any worse off, so can’t say I feel bad for them.

  12. i dont think Lara Giddings would be able to manage rolling out her own wheely bin without it costing millions or it ending up the happy mess she needed to have. Labor have had 16 Years to do this and plenty more, I went for being the largest domain name owner in Tasmania (thousands of them) and making a small fortune to nearly none. Simply not good enough
    See you in a month. and i hope you get smashed

    have a nice day
    Phillip

    • Ok, thanks for the marvelously insightful post Philip. Not sure Lara can be blamed for the demise of your business, but if it makes you feel better, you go right on ahead and blame her for the loss of capital expenditure (90% of which has been out of her hands, or recently in the case of the carbon tax budbetshortfall- is the federal government’s fault).

      If you really think Will Hodgman can do a better job after his many years in opposition, then I recommend taking a look at Abbott’s list of broken promises and his outright failure as a competent PM. All we will get with Hodgman is mini-Abbott.

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