Bill Gates backs away from NBN debate

By
Renai LeMay
-
13

blog International technology luminaries have a long history of arriving in Australia and delivering off the cuff comments about the National Broadband Network policy. Internet visionary Vint Cerf’s done it, then-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt’s done it and Mexican telco czar Carlos Slim has done it.

As I’ve written before, this practice has always irked me. The NBN debate is an incredible complex one, spanning not just the provision of broadband but the restructuring and future regulation of the telecommunications sector, winding back Telstra’s vertical integration and driving competition outcomes in the industry. For an outsider to come in and just throw their fairly uninformed opinion out there has always seemed arrogant.

That’s why I was so impressed with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ response on the issue today, when asked in this video published by the Sydney Morning Herald. Gates said about the NBN:

“Yeah, I don’t know enough to really take a side on this issue. It’s definitely good to have a broadband network, and how you get there, whether you use private company competition, like Korea did, or whether you use government policies like some countries are, that’s a tough one.”

Perhaps Gates has read Delimiter’s guide to Australia for visiting tech celebrities and prepared himself for the inevitable NBN questions ahead of time? It’d be the smart man’s approach.

I have to say, thanks Bill. You’d have to be one of the only technology visionaries who I’ve ever seen admit that they didn’t know enough to comment. It’s that willingness to learn which has made you one of the richest men on the planet, and that humility which has resulted in you ploughing most of your money back in to help humanity develop globally. Kudos — we need more people like you. And one last question: If Gates admits he doesn’t know enough to comment on the NBN, what does that say about Tony Abbott?

Image credit: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Related posts:

  1. Bill Gates hits Sydney for family holiday
  2. “I’m no Bill Gates,” says Tony Abbott
  3. Good guy Gates on the NBN
  4. Rebel telco alliance backs Turnbull’s NBN bill
  5. Vodafone CEO backs Quigley NBN study

13 COMMENTS

  1. Tony Abbott is no Bill Gates — he knows enough to comment.

    the circle is completed.

      • about the NBN? he hardly talks about the NBN.

        lately, i notice the only times Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott mention the NBN is in the context of Labor’s dodgy, “manufactured” surplus forecasts…. along the lines of…

        “…..this just goes to show you cannot trust this Labor Government with managing this nation’s finances and the incredible wastefulness of this Administration… with extravagant projects such as the NBN…..”

        :)

        • no not about the nbn, just in general.

          i could i suppose apply that comment to all politicians. :)

          • Tony Abbott hardly comes across as verbose. he has a very pensive, hesitant manner of speaking. i prefer listening to loquacious, smooth-talking politicians. probably because my attention span for politicians is short ;)

  2. they might a power couple, but Good Lord, do they have poor taste in colour…. matching brown suits.

    eeeewww…..

    always loved Dubyah’s dark blue suits and especially his striking blue ties.

    • …and those piercing blue eyes, so reflective of the innate wit, sophistication and savoir faire lurking within the bushster, alas, never to be displayed, always to be hidden by the clever, calculated image of the chimp…

      …no, wait, hang on, he really is a chimp, phew, had me worried for a minute there…

  4. Sounds a little half glass full, half glass empty to me…
    “If Gates admits he doesn’t know enough to comment on the NBN, what does that say about Tony Abbott?”
    Well if Bill Gates is not qualified to answer this question, does that mean that the so called “experts” in the labor party are?

  5. Lol, the silver spooners love the NBN and Tony Abbott knows it. He realises any opposition he throws at it will be undermined by a follow-the-money enquiry by the media. THE NOALITION HAS NO PLAN TO EMBRACE THE 21ST CENTURY AND ARE IN PANIC MODE THANX TO KEVIN RUDDS AGGRESSIVELY BALLS OUT APPROACH AS PRIME MINISTER: AUSTRALIA WILL THANK HIM FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS AS COKING COAL WILL BE REPLACED BY ALTERNATIVES AND AUSTRALIAS INCREDIBLY LUCKY EXPORTING STREAK FACES INEVITABLE CHANGES IN THIS FAST TURNING WORLD!!

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