Impolite Turnbull tweet sparks NBN backlash

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turnbull

news A flippant response by Malcolm Turnbull to broadband problems being suffered by a high-flying small business owner and executive has backfired on the Communications Minister, with a plethora of responses being published on the social networking site slamming the new Coalition Government’s controversial revision of Labor’s popular National Broadband Network policy.

Julia Keady is a senior marketing and social media consultant who runs the XFactor Consulting Group based in Victoria. According to the executive’s LinkedIn profile, she has developed marketing initiatives for some of Australia’s largest brands, including Australia Post, ANZ and NAB Banks, HBF, Medibank and more. Keady has also worked as the chief executive executive at the Australian Women Donors Network, as well as holding journalist positions earlier in her career.

keady

On Twitter yesterday, Keady informed Turnbull that she had bought a house in the rural Victorian town of Ocean Grove, which has a population of about 11,000. “No NBN. No Cable. No ADSL2 or 1. Back to the dongle. Prehistoric. Not good enough,” she wrote. In response, Turnbull asked Keady why, “if connectivity was so vital to you, why did you buy a house where there was no broadband available?”

Keady followed up Turnbull’s question by stating that she had checked whether broadband was available in the relevant area. “Broadband is available. We’re not that silly! But no ports left in exchange. No incentive for telcos!” she wrote.

The exchange sparked some of a small storm on Twitter, with dozens of other users of the site chiming in admonishing Turnbull for his flippant response to the issue, and arguing that rural Australia deserved the same level of telecommunications access as metropolitan Australia.

“Mate, do you even understand the bit where this is literally your job and that answer isn’t acceptable?” one Twitter user asked Turnbull. Another wrote: “Fair question, but the vision for the National Broadband Network was to eliminate this. You are being held responsible and we need it fixed.”

Exacerbating the problem for Turnbull is that the Government’s MyBroadband site launched last month lists most of Ocean Grove as having access to ADSL broadband, meaning it is likely that Keady could have reasonably expected to get some access to broadband if the consultant had used the site to gauge availability. Crowdsourced analysis of the site’s results have shown it to be substantially inaccurate when compared to real-world broadband speeds.

The social media stoush reflects an ongoing level of dissatisfaction which the wider Australian population has with the Coalition’s radical modification of Labor’s popular NBN policy.

Under Labor’s NBN policy, some 93 percent of Australian premises were to have received fibre directly to the premise, delivering maximum download speeds of up to 1Gbps and maximum upload speeds of 400Mbps. The remainder of the population was to have been served by a combination of satellite and wireless broadband, delivering speeds of up to 25Mbps.

Under this scenario, Keady’s issues in Ocean Grove would have been resolved eventually. In fact, some areas of the town are listed as having NBN access already, meaning that it may have been used as a trial for early rollout of Labor’s network.

However, NBN Co’s Strategic Review published in December last year changed the paradigm, with the company recommending (and the Coalition supporting) a vision in which up to a third of Australian premises will be served by the HFC cable networks of Telstra and Optus, and Fibre to the Node and Fibre to the Basement used in other areas not already covered by Labor’s FTTP approach. Satellite and wireless is to be used to cover some rural and regional areas. The plan has been roundly criticised by much of Australia’s technology sector due to the technically inferior nature of the technology being proposed, compared with Labor’s vision.

Labor has admitted its previous contractor-led rollout strategy for its NBN policy had failed, and the rollout was proceeding very slowly. However, under the Coalition’s new model, it is currently unclear what the future holds for Ocean Grove and other areas in terms of what type of broadband it will get and when.

In general, the Australian public has not reacted well to the Coalition’s plans to modify the NBN policy.

In mid-February Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare presented to Federal Parliament the signatures of 272,000 Australians who want the new Coalition Government to build Labor’s all-fibre version of the National Broadband Network instead of the technically inferior version which the Coalition is proposing.

The news came as a new comprehensive study of public attitudes towards Labor’s National Broadband Network project published this month found the initiative still enjoyed very high levels of widespread public support from ordinary Australians, despite what the study described as an “overwhelmingly negative” approach to the project by print media such as newspapers.

In November, supporters of Labor’s all-fibre vision for the National Broadband Network project organised a national day of action on the issue, which saw thousands of Australians physically present Members of Parliament with copies of the petition. Supporters also raised tens of thousands of dollars for a pro-NBN advertising campaign in Turnbull’s local newspaper. A number of other surveys conducted over the past 2-3 years have consistently shown strong support for the NBN project amongst Australians, and even Coalition voters.

Before Christmas, respected telecommunications analyst Paul Budde heavily criticised the Coalition’s new preferred broadband deployment model, describing its “Multi-Technology Mix” approach as “a dog’s breakfast” of different technologies, which could turn out to be a “logistical nightmare” to deliver in practice.

This week’s episode on Twitter is also not the first time that Turnbull has faced heavy public criticism over the Coalition’s broadband plan.

An attempt by Turnbull in January to leverage a visit to Facebook’s headquarters in the US to communicate with Australians about the future of the digital economy via social media also backfired, with the Communications Minister’s official Facebook filling up with hundreds of comments slamming the Coalition’s inferior broadband policy.

opinion/analysis
So who’s right here? Well, there are arguments on both sides, but none of them lead down a good path for our Communications Minister.

Firstly, Turnbull is, of course, somewhat right. I’m a small business owner myself, and I have to say that I wouldn’t move to a rural area unless I was 100 percent certain I could definitely get broadband in that area — say, for example, if Labor’s fibre NBN had already been deployed there. Keady did check whether broadband was available in the area, but it’s still a bit of a gamble moving to a rural area, as the consultant found. The ‘lack of ADSL ports’ problem is a pervasive one in some areas in Australia.

There is a small degree of entitlement in Keady’s comments — entitlement which small business operators cannot afford.

However, there’s also a bigger picture here. As Communications Minister and in Opposition, Turnbull has repeatedly pledged to deliver better broadband to Australians, faster, cheaper and more affordably.

The Minister’s comments to Keady were not only impolite, they were an abrogation of that responsibility, as so many other Twitter users pointed out immediately. Sure, given that Turnbull has only been Minister for six months, he can’t be expected to take responsibility for the state of broadband in Ocean Grove. But as a politician, he might have been expected to apologise, to say that he would look into her situation and do what he could about it. That would have cost him absolutely nothing and no time — but would have stopped the Australian Twitterati from going into one of its oh-so-entertaining mass rages.

Turnbull’s not going to get very far selling the Coalition’s broadband plan to a skeptical Australian electorate if he doesn’t play nice.

This episode is symptomatic of Turnbull’s personality in general. The Member for Wentworth is very unusual amongst his colleagues in that he deeply understands social media and uses electronic communication to build a very close relationship with his constituents. His availability and charisma through such channels is what has led him to be extremely popular in the electorate.

However, when Turnbull is on the wrong side of the argument — as he is with the NBN issue — that relationship tends to turn on the MP, and Turnbull can be flippant or even a little bitter with his audience. I recognise the phenomenon, as the same thing happens to me as a journalist sometimes when the majority of Delimiter readers don’t agree with something I’ve written.

Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people: And that means all the people, not just those who agree with him. You can’t lead by taking an antagonistic approach with your constituency. You can only lead by gently helping to steer the wave already created by your support base. And right now, the broadband issue is a major one in Australia. Turnbull needs to support people on this issue, not belittle them.

Image credit: Parliamentary Broadcasting, Julia Keady

83 COMMENTS

      • And just for fun, probe the area in mybroadband, it gives an A for Availability for the whole exchange area, with speeds between 7 and 20Mbps
        Also according to Telstra Wholesale website there ARE 626 ADSL1/8Mbps ports available

    • This is the sort of thing that really frustrates me. The telecommunications industry has been playing this card for over a decade. Seriously, you get above N% port capacity, you build more even if you need more land to put it on.

      • Why build more (or even try and fix it)?

        When its so much cheaper to just throttle the speed and offer people “other alternatives” such as Dial-up and Wireless (all for a ‘reasonable’ price especially if bundled w/ phone of course!).

        Oh and for the record yes I have been on the receiving end of that little nugget of brilliance as well. They eventually did fix up the RIM issue here… now its just a matter of getting a port for faster speeds past ADSL1.

    • Went through the exact same problem myself recently. Bought a house just before the election that was meant to get the nbn within 12 months. Adsl2 was also available in the area with ports supposedly available. Moved in and was told sorry no ports available ATM. Had to wait a month or so to gain access, of which my connection drops out a soon as it rains. Then the LNP gained power and my suburb was removed from the rollout map. Turnbulls arrogant and flippant reply is a disgrace. The man that is meant to be solving the problem just disregards the public experiencing it. Would love to live in inner Sydney with cable to my house.

    • Which begs the question why Testra is allowed to get away with walking away from this situation. How can they just say no ports and wash their hands. If there are not enough ports for the town, the bloody well add more. They get away with far too often. Internet access is almost as important as water and electricity these days. I know people in Berowra, which is part of Sydney, no a small rural town in the middle of nowhere and that have no internet and no mobile phone coverage.

      • It is a common occurrence.
        Unfortunately, since Telstra is a non-government company, they can do what they more or less wish, which seems to be wait and see what develops rather than spending money to fix the issues.

    • We did similar, checked with Telstra, gave address (after knocking out over 2 dozen places that Telstra already said has less than acceptable), then when we moved in found that we had just a touch above dial up, so even checking with Telstra doesn’t help.

      At least not as bad as one bloke we knew, took months to actually find a house to buy in an area that Telstra assured him had decent broadband speeds, after 6 months, over a grand & I have no idea how much stress for his business, finally has a line connected, though again, barely above dial up speed :(

      • Perhaps it’s also worth mentioning private sector ADSL and alternative technology investments were halted once the NBN was announced (no possibility of a ROI); Rudd/Conroy’s largest contribution to Australia’s Internet today.

        Telstra HFC upgrades canceled, increased backhaul fibre canceled (restricting competition at exchanges), RIM investment halted, etc).

        NBNCo’s failure to deliver on predicted connections and this investment freeze lead directly to the situation this customer experienced.

  1. “Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people..”

    Hear Hear.

    Turnbull continues to ‘lash out’ in the exact same manner whilst in opposition. He’s been in this role for over 6 months. And the best he can do is effectively tell a frustrated elector “sucks to be you”.

    It’s his portfolio for heaven’s sake. Pathetic.

  2. I rented in the area where my Partner and I wanted to buy before buying. In part to get a feel for broadband availability (I depend on it for my Job + Business), but also to get a feel for the area. Bought a place less than 1km away and I eventually managed to get hooked up (4 months of Telstra screw ups later) I found my cable run went via the other side of the suburb. Result, 4 – 5 times slower on a good day (~3Mbit). I live 1.2 Kilometers from the exchange (was part of the decision making process for purchase) and In fact if I walk to the end of the street near my house I can almost see it!

    So no Mr Turnbull, your flippant one liner is quite inaccurate, you can be hosed even if you do all your homework. Not all of us can afford to “Move” to get better internet.

    To add to that my residence is within 15Km of the _Capital_ of Western Australia, not exactly regional. In fact my regional friends (Central Victoria – 14 – 21Mbit, WA Wheatbelt – 12 – 14Mbit) are far better served than I am. If you are in one of these regional towns and there are ADSL2+ ports available (something you can’t find out until you sign up, which you can’t do until you’re a resident), you are much more likely to be close to the exchange than in the suburbs.

    • “you flippant one liner is inaccurate”.

      He asked a question, which really cannot be inaccurate. Do we really want our leaders going off on mission on the basis of a single 140 character tweet? Is requesting more information before acting such a bad characteristic in a minister?

  3. I think this episode, as similar past episodes either on social media or press interviews, just highlights how out of touch Turnbull really is with the “man/woman in the street”.

    Increasingly he is coming across as bitter and twisted with a touch of the Sweeny Todd / smiling assassin about him.

    I suspect that slowly but surely he is losing the overwhelming goodwill that the public have bestowed on him.
    It is becoming increasingly clear why so many in his own party loathe him, and why he will never be a leader again.

    It is all a bit sad that someone so intelligent, so eminently likeable has tarnished himself by his pigheadedness, my way or the highway, approach to a project of such national significance.

    Sorry Malcolm, but it is time to go. Retire now whilst you still have some semblance of public goodwill.

    • To keep his job Turnbull just needs to keep the party happy to make sure he is preselected. Being the liberal candidate for Wentworth is almost as a secure position as being the first senate candidate for the two major parties. Turnbull would have to implode in a spectacular fashion to lose his seat.

  4. “The Member for Wentworth is very unusual amongst his colleagues in that he deeply understands social media”

    I think the problem is he doesn’t that is how this happened in the first place. Sure he know how to use Twitter and facebook and the like but as a business, public figure or elected representative there are some thing you don’t do on social media.

  5. There’s no way to tell if Broadband is available at a location with 100% certainty. The just launched “MyBroadband” website will give you an indication as to what services are available in the area, but you won’t actually be told if you can get those services until you have moved in, and applied to have them connected.

  6. I wish that everybody would get off of Malcolm’s back. He has a job to do and he’s getting no help at all from Australian citizens. It’s no wonder he is so testy.

    It’s not easy to destroy a nation’s broadband future you know.

  7. Nothing to see here (except anticipated LNP bashing), moving along

    as a side note, under labors NBN, my area was not expected to get it in any current or future considered planned area (out to 2018), yet a friend who lives in a very BB saturated area with everyone from hel$tra, tpg, iinet , optus and porobably the frickin pope providing adsl2, was to get nbn by “early this year”
    labor had good intentions but NFI about prioritising, thi story just seems in touch with Renais commitment to blast Turnbull every chance he gets.,.. slow IT news day it seems

    • “as a side note, under labors NBN, my area was not expected to get it in any current or future considered planned area (out to 2018)”

      What makes you think you’re getting fraudband any sooner?

    • Could you please provide the suburb of your friend because while you assume that the area has many options a lot of the time this is not the case.

    • “nothing to see here”.

      Really? I wouldn’t give a monkeys if the government was liberal, labor, greens, or even just made up of Scott Ludlam’s hair — if you are the minister for internets, mocking people in public over a lack of access after spending an entire term telling the world you’ll fix it — is just plain obnoxious.

    • I oh so love it when these little nuggets of “I wasn’t on the map” comes up.

      Ok… before you start going off how you would “never” have gotten the service. First of all when was the expected Labor NBN project supposed to finish? 2021 IIRC?

      Now what was that “estimates” map showing up to for planned construction? 2018?

      So you’re presuming that all builds would just magically stop after 2018? And that your area would never have been added as the roll out commenced?

      Fact of the matter is under Labor’s plans you were sure to get the service *EVENTUALLY*. Now exactly what are we “sure” of in the new “cheaper, faster, better” plan? Well not fast because everything is up in the air until end of the year when they finally “reprioritise” building. Better is subjective because when your stuck w/ “crap” vs “crap” anything looks better.

      In fact the *only* thing were certain of is if you live in an HFC area your practically shafted as the government considers your connection “good enough for your current and future needs”.

      Personally I don’t give a rats ass about how long it would have taken me to get FTTP. I’ve lived w/ craptastic internet for a good 15-20 years already anyway. As long as a good proper network that would have removed a majority of our fragmented broadband issues was done. Instead not only are we basically starting from scratch planning wise for a plan we don’t even know will be an improvement since the “minimum” clause was conveniently dropped instead we’re just getting good money thrown in to make an already fragmented mess of a telecoms and broadband network even worse in the long run!

  8. Hahaahahahaha, im surprised you are all shocked at this reaction from the scumbag. He has always been the same.

    What a germ, an absolute oxygen thief….

    The germ knows next to nothing about communications only have to read/listen what he says to see that.

    WORST COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER OF ALL TIME.

  9. Yep no surprises there. Again the Libs showing utter contempt for rural communities. Apparently they do so well in the country they don’t need to care, especially in Indi…oh wait…

  10. Is Renai no longer using the term “CBN” anymore?

    Read two articles today and not a single mention of that term, as if Renai is purposely avoiding it now.

  11. (1) By your own analysis, we had no way of knowing that we couldn’t get broadband at this particular house when we bought it, as all indications are that it was available in our area. The suburb where we bought was a paddock five years ago, so you would expect it to have modern services.
    (2) We bought in a coastal community to give our son a good place to grow up, why should we be penalised for that? You appear to be agreeing with Malcom that only city dwellers should have access to the internet.
    (3) How is it naive expecting to get broadband in a satellite suburb of one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing regional centers (geelong)?

    Adam Blanch – Julia Keady’s husband.

    • Renai tries to give a balanced view. Sometimes he gets it right and sometimes he sides with Malcolm.

      At least he’s giving it some air time which is more than you can say for News Limited…or should I say Limited News?

      • “Renai tries to give a balanced view. Sometimes he gets it right and sometimes he sides with Malcolm.”

        Sometimes Malcolm gets it right too ;)

    • hey Adam,

      with the greatest of respect, this statement:

      “The suburb where we bought was a paddock five years ago, so you would expect it to have modern services.”

      is inaccurate. In fact, new developments usually have terrible telecommunications services for some time after they have been built. Telstra is not the greatest fan of extending its copper network on demand, and the existing copper network is very old — telco services are generally most widely available where there have been premises for the longest. This sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true.

      As for (2), you shouldn’t be penalised for it — I support universal access to fast broadband in Australia. But reality hasn’t caught up with that ideal yet. All I, or Malcolm was pointing out, was that if your business relies on fast broadband, you had better make sure it’s available in premises you lease/buy. Admittedly, as quite a few posters have pointed out here, it’s quite hard to make sure broadband is available before you buy.

      As for (3), it is definitely naive to expect to be able to get decent broadband outside of Australia’s major cities. Australia has some of the poorest broadband in the developed world. This has been an issue for a decade now.

      I do sympathise with you, and I agree broadband should be available everywhere in Australia. I want that too. But I’m not going to say there is no truth to Malcolm’s response, because there is. I’m a small business owner too ;)

      • So you are saying that all small business owners should live in Metro area?

        With that analysis you are pretty much agreeing with Malcolm here.

      • “In fact, new developments usually have terrible telecommunications services for some time after they have been built. Telstra is not the greatest fan of extending its copper network on demand, and the existing copper network is very old — telco services are generally most widely available where there have been premises for the longest. This sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true”

        And this is the greatest irony of all. This is the market providing; doing as absolutely little as possible for as long as possible. This is our destiny.

    • hey Adam,

      I’d just like to apologise — I have been made aware, post the publication of the article, that you guys did check for broadband availability in the area, and that it was the lack of ports issue which stymied you in the end. It appears you went through more research than I realised.

      With this in mind, I’ve changed the tone of some segments of the article to reflect this fact. I hope this is OK.

      Kind regards,

      Renai

    • Errrh, the family acknowledge they moved to “….one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing regional centers”….without any serious checks into local capacity and then making such a fuss complaining about it? Get a life.

  12. This exchange just angers me. It really goes to show how out of touch politicians are with the public. I liken this to the Adam Orth Xbox fiasco “why would I live there”. Both should be ridiculed for their statements, rightly so.

  13. This is so characteristic of liberals. I work with rich liberals and they cannot understand why no one has a BMW and fibre internet in their house (because they literally paid for $10k for the fibre install).

    Its as if everyone else is lazy (of course most of these idiots are forgetting they inherited their wealth)

    The onus is on the government to provide either directly the infrastructure or an environment that encourages private enterprise to develop that infrastructure.

    Though I personally think communication networks should be government supplied.

    That all said I don’t understand why significant tax benefits could not be supplied in order to entice ISP’s and carriers to build in rural areas.

    For example the revenue in those areas could be tax free for the first 3 years (shouldn’t take more then 3 years to earn a return).

    Other benefits like giving the equilvant in tax credits for the CAPEX spent on the infrastructure. So if a company spends $5b rolling out a fibre to the house network they get $5b in tax credits (or maybe 50%, so $2.5b in tax credits).

  14. I don’t really understand how you can guarantee that the house you are moving to has adsl availability. I tried to find out for all the properties I was looking at when I moved rental recently. No agents could tell me, in the contract it was stated that it wasn’t the responsibility of the agent, the teleco companies could only tell me about the adsl capability of the exchange.

    Ultimately I was told I had to choose a place and cross my fingers when I put in an application. What secret am I missing that can guarantee a prospective property has high speed internet?

    • What secret am I missing that can guarantee a prospective property has high speed internet?
      if you’re lucky enough to inspect a prospective rental while the current tenant is home you can ask them.
      i’ve done that before.

      or you have a look for a modem while checking the house out.
      not an indication of performance, but pretty good proof of availability.

      • How does this prove anything? If there is limited port availability then it is likely that other residents are waiting for a port to become available and will be on a waiting list to receive one the moment it is available (e.g. between the new tenant moving in, and the previous tenant moving out). Additionally, most people are aware that poor (or no) internet access lowers property value, and will misrepresent the truth or avoid the topic altogether.

  15. “In fact, some areas of the town are listed as having NBN access already, meaning that it may have been used as a trial for early rollout of Labor’s network.”

    Those patches having NBN access already are Green Fields. They are not subject to trial rollout.

    Ocean Grove is a Band 2 Exchange, and would have guaranteed it to get Fibre To The Premises under the Labor NBN rollout. Not Wireless or satellite.
    I’m not sure you can qualify it as a ‘rural Victorian town’ with the population density that it appears to have.

    This whole dispute just goes to show how much of a bag full of bull Turnbull is when it comes to fulfilling his role as Communications Minister. He thinks his role stops at the boundary of the Wentworth Electorate, where everyone has highspeed internet, and doing any more would be a waste of their money.

  16. I think the issue becomes exacerbated when you spend $500,000.00 for a house and then can’t get ADSL. I’m in IT and had no idea that my house wouldn’t be able to get ADSL in a new estate and within 20km of the CBD.

    Fix it already!

    • I had a contract with an NBC vendor for the 2000 Olympics…it required downloading some clips and graphics from them to be edited for rebroadcast. One of the things I needed was a very fast broadband connection.
      I rented a big beautiful house in Clontarf after checking with Telstra that cable broadband (this was before ADSL) was available…Telstra assured me that it was.
      Two months after moving in and still no cable…they finally informed me that their maps were wrong and that the house was a “battleax”, so sorry, no cable. They offered me a satellite connection (which was terrible). I had to inform NBC of the situation, and they gave the contract to someone else (not enough time to find another house and move).
      The moral of the story is that checking in advance does not mean that you will have a connection, which is why the idea of a ubiquitous FTTP was such a brilliant one! Oh well, another opportunity lost…

  17. Typical arrogance from a liberal MP. Complete inability to put himself into the shoes of others. Totally unacceptable.

  18. Excuse me but we are forgetting something here… Malcolm invented the internet in Australia, he just hasn’t invented it in that area yet.. Sheeze.
    No but honestly, shame on you MT.. Go sit in the naughty corner for 20 months.

  19. blasting MT because he asked the same thing that almost everyone here thinks of when people say what this chick said is hypocritical. no surprises there though.
    Yes, he could have handled it better. But instead he handled the same way everyone else would have.
    I thought the response was funny. But as I said, he could have handled it better

    • “handled the same way everyone else would have”
      Uhuh throw everyone in the same basket.

    • If he isn’t upto the job of being Communication Minister (let alone Minister at all), then someone else should be given the job.

      In any job, you expect criticism.

    • He is the minister in charge of building a next generation network; provides a website that lists their house as ADSL “A” Grade availability, and they move in and get nothing.

      And responds with: “Why didn’t you buy a different house?”

      Sounds totally professional to me.

  20. I might find myself in a similar position. I am looking at property where RIM is used, limited ports, ADSL1 speeds, most locals are using wireless internet as a result.
    Or I can go a suburb over, where there is no RIM, and ADSL2 /might/ be available if there ports available for that location. Or I can go a few suburbs further, to a greenfield with NBN, but at about 100k+ more.

    Things are very patchy at the moment. If only someone could devise a plan to get some decent minimum speeds to the whole population and provide us with timelines and roll out maps. How great would that be?

  21. So far Turnbull done bugger all in solving the crises in Telecommunications sector in the 6 months they been in Goverment, while other countries are forging ahead in their plans and continuing to rollout FTTP & other technologies, we are left behind again, due to change of Goverment.

    While it’s not surprising, Coalition Party had 10+ years in previous government to solve the situation with the availability of broadband, even if it was ADSL2+.

    We are getting excuses, beyond excuses how this policy is getting delayed due to another damned report (which is only ever about saving money) or delayed rollouts of a project which is usually political speak for cancelling it (NDIS for example).

  22. So, according to Renai, Turnbull’s main error was he needed to “be polite” about doing nothing?

    Proof reader alert: One of these things is not like the other….

    “Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people: And that means all the people, not just those who disagree with him.”

    I’m guessing Renai meant to type:

    “Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people: And that means all the people, not just those who agree with him.”

    or maybe:

    “Turnbull needs to realise that his fundamental role is to be a representative of the people: And that means all the people, particularly those he is comprehensively shafting”

  23. All,
    If you want to see a change in the Turnball / Ziggy muppet show you will need to get a heavy hitter in your corner. You will need someone like a national carrier to go to bat for you, someone who responds to financial pressure, someone who likes to stay on top, someone like our very own national carrier…. Tel$tra.
    We as a nation vote every day with our wallets. We are the ones who put these groups in power so we are the ones that can take the power from them.
    By simply changing your internet/phone/mobile provider (where possible) to a carrier not associated with Telstra/Bigpond you end up competitors improving their infrastructure for your business, Tel$tra on the back foot wondering what went wrong and politicians with one less major puppet to control.
    We the people are the controlling entity in the bigger picture and we have the power to change the picture as we see fit.
    All you and i have to do is act collectively.

  24. This topic is succesfully demonstrating that it is not possible to ensure you will have a connection prior to actually purchasing a property and attempting to connect. This is merely a ghostly premonition of the future contracts for purchase of a property which will consider whether a property has access to a real NBN, or a CBN substitute. Costs of connection are immaterial, what is the real prospect of realistic connection to acceptable internet? I foresee a premium of up to $50k being attached to fibre optic NBN capable properties.
    Personally I was fed a line by Telstra that adsl was available for my area and that I would have to apply for a phone line and subsequently internet (…. therefore post purchase). I accepted it was a risk and purchased the property, and was duly educated about the quality of “rural 4.5km connections” It was only later I became aware of the NPGDSL tag for new phone connections. My attempts to get connected led to 18mths of rubbish comments regarding waiting for database upgrades -two iterations of said upgrades- before they finally connected ADSL to my phone number and some other poor souls premises, disconnecting their phone in the process. Simply put there is 10 copper pairs in my street attempting to serve 15 premises, some with multiple ph/fx lines. Upon restoration of voice only, unreliable connection problems continued for 6mths before I could no longer afford missed business and disconnected landline resorting to an optus MVNO, mobile voice only solution.

    Although this necessitated a redirection of my income generating activities, with due diligence I was actually aware of the risk, although disappointed in the outcome.
    However I take much satisfaction from having subsequently advised/consulted many people away from Telstra adsl/voice services and education about using voip solutions to result in a minimum of $20k lost business to Telstra. I encourage anyone suffering from connection problems to share their hard gwon knowledge within their social circles and help others improve their services at the cost of Telstra’s profits. It may cost you time, but it will affect their bottom line significanlty. We may not be able to attain proper services, but we can share the pain with those preventing us from attaining said services.

  25. I liked the part where Turnbull blamed Labor even though his mob had literally a decade to right the wrong of a privatised, vertically integrated Telstra – until Labor came along with a policy which forced them to get off their asses and pretend to give a damn.

    I also liked the part where he continued to grill her, one of the people he is meant to represent.

  26. premise
    noun
    ˈprɛmɪs/
    1.
    LOGIC
    a previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion.
    “if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true”
    proposition, assumption, hypothesis, thesis, presupposition, postulation, postulate, supposition, presumption, surmise, conjecture, speculation, datum, argument, assertion, belief, thought; More
    verb
    verb: premise; 3rd person present: premises; past tense: premised; past participle: premised; gerund or present participle: premising
    prɪˈmʌɪz/
    1.
    base an argument, theory, or undertaking on.

  27. Hello. I live in the Cambodian jungle and have a 7mbps connection. And Australia doesn’t have the resources to connect Ocean Grove?

  28. And look at who Turncoat for 30 pieces of silver once they get an invitation from Turnbull to join the new [sic] cobwebbed dusty NBN Co, including Hackett.

  29. “The ‘lack of ADSL ports’ problem is a pervasive one in some areas in Australia.”

    This is actually a major problem, Its not a uncommon, I live in a bigger rural town of 65 000 people. When I moved to a flat 2 years ago I was told ADS 2 was available. After 3 weeks of “trying” to connect me, telstra told me no ADSL 2 ports were available. Living near a the hospital I assumed good broadband would be available.

    Story doesn’t end, as many people in my town who live in teh town and next to people with ADLS are having to be on a very bad wireless, as many many exchanges have no free ADSL ports. I used to Install satellite under the governments broadband guarantee, and installed many satellite dish in the middle of towns.

    1 such town I must have installed 30 satellite dishes all close enough to the exchange, except the exchange had no free ADS ports. at the government paying $3000 subsidy per dish, that’s $90 000 the government paid cause telstra didn’t want to upgrade an exchange.

    Not ALP’s fault at the time, they were misled by telstra. In which case the coalition sold off telstra, which if still government owned would have just upgraded the exchanges in Australia .

  30. I see that MT is doing a beautiful job of “Destroying the NBN”!

    Every one of these stories just distracts us from what is going on here, taking our eye off the ball if you like.

    “Death by Neglect” It’s quite common with Real estate investments where a property is cr@p but has a heritage listing on it.

    That’s all MT is doing, and by us jumping on every little story like this, we are helping him!

  31. The “No Ports Available” problem is a serious issue in not only regional areas, but also places around Melbourne & Sydney (and I’m sure other cities) that are within 20 kms of the CBD. It’s a bloody joke, it’s gone on for far too long and it’s simply not good enough.

    Turnbull continues to use broadband as yet another political excuse to slag off the opposition and not actually achieve anything. Do you hear that Turbnull? Broadband is now a required utility, not a luxury. If you and your colleagues could pull your thumbs out of your bum holes the majority of Australians could have broadband alongside water, gas & electricity – that’s how critical it is these days.

    Does Turnbull realise that though? Yes he does, but he doesn’t give a shit. Just another rich wanker out of touch with the real needs of Australians.

  32. I don’t understand why the number of free ports isn’t available on sites like mybroadband, or why there’s no easy way include realistic broadband options/speeds in real estate listings.

  33. Don’t be fooled by the whole “ports available” thing either.
    Best friend just bought a house in inner Melbourne suburb (Glen Orme Avenue,McKinnon)
    Being the typical IT nerd best friend i did all the checking for him before he bought, finding Telstra, iiNet, TPG and Optus all had available ports at his local exchange (1.5 klm)
    Oh wait, no actual physical lines to the house, and no – we wont be putting any in!!!
    After much research, it seems this is a growing problem where a single large property house is replaced with 3 to 4 smaller houses. The original property line only can supply to 2 of the new houses, the others get nothing.
    Wireless is not an option either. On average he requires 25Gb download and decent upload (interior design specs and photos for his business)
    Needless to say it took some explaining on my part to prevent damaging my friendship.

  34. I live 25km north of Brisbane CBD, I checked with Telstra prior to purchasing 6 years ago, being told ADSL was available, to move in No ADSL, ISDN wasn’t available either.I had a dedicated dial-up line for 3 years. I now am the lucky one in the street with ADSL though Optus, unable to get anything on Telstra’s network, or reliant isp ( iiNet, TPG, yes both with their own DSLAMs)
    I am the lucky one, everyone else in the street relies on dongles,
    Only last year the people across the road, were told by Telstra ADSL was available, now relying on a Telstra dongle.

    it’s not just a rural problem.
    I think where ADSL is not available, wireless should be made available at the same rate or plan (so you get the calls, if included), until it becomes available.

    • “where ADSL is not available, wireless should be made available at the same rate or plan” — that alone would “encourage” competition. Get the telco’s to deliver what they promise, rather than sit on their bums giving lip service and excuses. Would be nice if that was legislated 10 years ago (when Telstra was sold off), but sadly it wasnt. Would have kept them in check a lot more if they knew it was their profits on the line.

      “Yes you can get ADSL2” “Sorry, we were wrong, there arent any ports available. We appologise for any inconvenience.” The two extremes just dont cut it. Not when you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars for something you cant flip.

      Its the 21st century (unless you’re Abbott), communications shouldnt be at risk. Ever. And that includes telecommunications.

  35. Malcolm, for a supposedly intelligent person, you are a $%^&wit, who obviously is out of touch with the MAJORITY of Australia. I would respectfully recommend that you get off your arse and do something about improving your woefully inadequate excuse for a broadband network or possibly lose the unloseable next election. Broadband access is a crucial election platform!!

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