Truth: Turnbull didn’t “fix” the NBN, Mr Fletcher — he turned it into a politicised, tragic mess

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Oh, The Australian.
    The Mos Eisley of Oz Media.
    They have been telling gigantic lies about the NBN and doing a PR Hatchet job on it since it was first announced. Their coverage was so biased and factually wrong that I ceased to read any articles from the website and refuse to read the paper. It has become a hate tabloid as far as I am concerned, with less integrity than the Tele and the Herald-Sun.
    Revisionism is the least of the crimes I expect them to commit. Outright lies like Fox News in the US is more like what I expect from them now.

    • I always like to put quotes around it (eg “The Australian”), I find it helps to convey the inherent irony in the name and highlights the papers track record of ignoring the Australian public’s interests in favor of Murdoch’s political agenda and that of his Lib troll lackeys.

    • For me there were two things which really displayed The Australian’s attitude towards the NBN.

      The first was the (I think it was 2010?) election day scare campaign they ran about the project and how it would cost mega-dollars for people to run Ethernet through their homes to take advantage of the NBN’s fibre speeds. It was front page on that day … and it was total bullshit.

      The second was the witch hunt they conducted into Mike Quigley’s past at Alcatel-Lucent … it was disgraceful, and there was never any evidence presented that Quigley ever did anything wrong.

      There have been a heap of other things — but those two really stuck out to me.

      • Totally agree, didnt the scare campaign start at $5k to “re-wire your home” and end up @ around $8k at one point?

        The other bit of FUD they ran for ages was the $200 per month basic plan cost B.S. cooked up by TurnBull’s mate and failed economist Henry Ergas – that really got up my goat too!

        I’ve also got to agree re the Quigley witch-hunt, that fact that TurnBull so enthusiastically pushed this farcical, blatantly personal barrow also did permanent damage to TurnBull’s reputation in the eyes of any tech savvy or fair minded Australian!

        • Yeah attacking Quigley was pathetic and even desperate. The list of what he achieved for the NBN Company and the Australian public is quite impressive! (and people forget that it all started with him and some executives built up from the ether)!

          • “people forget that it all started with him and some executives built up from the ether”

            I will never forget.

            https://delimiter.com.au/2013/07/15/a-man-of-dignity-mike-quigley-is-australias-consummate-technologist/

            “Australia’s National Broadband Network project is not fixed in stone. It will change, develop, grow, and, in a decade, may be close to unrecognisable compared with how we think of it now. But ultimately, this most ambitious infrastructure project will always be Quigley’s child. The NBN, and particularly NBN Co, was founded on Quigley’s integrity, dignity and focus and will always retain those aspects of Quigley at its core. And if that isn’t a fitting legacy for a man who will be remembered as one of Australia’s greatest technologists, then I don’t know what is.”

        • Yeah and Turnbull using parliament privilege to get away with what he said most of the time about Qiugley.

      • There is a big difference between “not telling the truth” (i.e. politics as usual) and outright lies. I feel Malcolm has stretched that difference so far he broke over the line a few times, especially when it came to Mike…

  2. The thing that worries me is that the more often that lies are spouted and repeated by politicians and the main stream media, the more they become ‘truth’ in the eyes of the general public. And for so many years now, there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the mainstream media who has successfully refuted these lies.

    • One of the main problems is that there just aren’t many journalists in the mainstream media who understand technology.

      Turnbull’s ascension to the Prime Ministership is a case in point. Turnbull has spent the majority of the past five years working on the NBN and other related telco policies/projects, in one form or another. That has been his job. Yet when he became PM, very few of my colleagues in the Press Gallery went into that history at all.

      It’s not because they’re bad journalists — they’re not, they’re some of the best journalists in the country. But they see tech as a nice area that they don’t need to examine too closely.

      I think with Turnbull as PM this will gradually change. I hope :)

      • Renai,
        I’ll tell you one thing you and your journo mates are – WIMPS! Get into their faces and demand answers! We pay their wages, so we’ve got every right to know what they’re doing (or not doing) for us. The problem with journalists today is clear cut: none of you have the guts to say to a politician, “You either answer the question now or at the next election you’re going to lose your job!”

      • They say it’s the same with politicians(not equating the two of course!) in that the world has become so complex politicians are dealing with things they simply can never be ultimately expected to fully understand.
        Generally if we look at the methods of the world we have developed they have become so intricate it becomes next to incomprehensible in an ever increasing fashion.

  3. I hate that the liberals talk about being more tech savy with Turnbull when he in fact has destroyed what could have made us world leaders in tech and it may have given us a chance to rebuild our flagging tech sector. Sadly I fear we will never be able to compete with other countries. There was recent article in The Age that showed where we have lost jobs the most over the last 6 months, not surprising it was all science, technology and professional services, they were even worse off than the manufacturing sector and we have all been hearing how our manufacturing sector has been hit hard. If Turnbull doesn’t do something for our tech sector soon we can write off tech in Australia for the next 20+ years. We need some level of protection to keep some jobs in Australia it is what every other country in the world does for its people and economy!!

    • But isn’t this just the ideological politics of the current Liberal government, both 1.0 and 2.0. The need to completely dismantle anything considered successful or nation building that is even loosely associated with ‘the other mob’. NBN, NDIS, ABC, SBS, Gonski, Financial Planning Review, renewable energy, science and technology in general, etc.

      The NBN case in point is just another example of what is wrong with politics in this county: Not my idea.

    • I have to say, the constant positive commentary on Turnbull as the ‘Prime Minister for Innovation’ over the past few days has stuck in my craw quite a bit.

      The guy wrecks the NBN, implements data retention and Internet piracy legislation, but because he’s PM and a more visionary PM than Abbott, suddenly he’s the darling of the ‘innovation’ sector.

      *sigh*

      Of course, I will always follow the evidence. If Turnbull walks what he is currently talking and develops the digital economy, I will give him the praise he will be due :)

      • There was an article in The Guardian last week where Shaun Micallef was quoted as saying it is difficult to make Turnbull funny because he is a man of logic and reason, that usually politicians have gaping holes you can pick at but Turnbull is such a straight shooter. Why don’t you get in contact with him and send him a file full of facts from 2013 on public statements, promises and factual reality? I have to admit getting rather angry not just at Mr Micallef (who I actually really like) but at the entire uneducated broader journalism industry for failing to do basic homework. They are actively doing the country a disservice ignoring the past five years of Turnbull’s actual verifiable track record.

  4. Here’s one fact that pisses me off: those in the mainstream media who continually post their analysis and opinion about the shortcomings of our political heavyweights, while not having the guts to ask them face-to-face for an explanation. Renai, you are in a position where your voice holds a lot more weight than us ‘mere mortals’. If you feel so passionately about it, why don’t you get the backing of Delimiter and go to Canberra yourself? Instead of hiding behind your desk and simply wafting your opinions in front of a small minority, why not take a TV camera to Parliament House, stop these muppets in their tracks before they walk in the door and demand they answer the tough questions? Be a true ‘Champion Of The People’ and show ordinary Australians exactly who these so-called ‘leaders’ really are!

    • “Renai, you are in a position where your voice holds a lot more weight than us ‘mere mortals’. If you feel so passionately about it, why don’t you get the backing of Delimiter and go to Canberra yourself?”

      That is kind of the idea behind joining the Canberra Press Gallery — I will be in the building asking politicians the right questions. I probably won’t have my own video camera, but I’ll be at the press conferences where there will be many other video cameras filming ;)

      I only got my pass a week ago — you will see me in the building a great deal pestering people! :D

    • DJShotty, why don’t you go to Delimiter and instead of hiding behind your desk and wafting your opinions in front of a small minority. Why not take a TV camera to Delimiter, stop the muppet (sorry Renai) in his track before he walks in the door and demand he answers tough questions. Be a true ‘Champion of Us Readers’ and show us ordinary Readers exactly what these so-called ‘journalists’ really are.

      How long have you been reading? 5 minutes?

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