How Do You Stop A Runaway Train?

We need to put the brakes on the train wreck that will be the national broadband network, writes Grant Petras.

This article by Terry McCrann should make for complusory reading, and if you read it then you should also get a shiver running up your back.

What a pity this sort of commentary wasn't going around before the election...then again it probably was, but not getting a fair hearing.

The analogy with rail is pertinent, as one who can remember the rail lines being pulled up and closed as road transport took over, being a faster, more efficient service to your door.

McCrann's article prompts me to ask, given that we still haven't seen any business plan or real time costings for the NBN, isn't it time that we, as a nation, paused and took a deep breath on this whole issue and asked ourselves...are we doing this right?

I was pole-axed by an American attending some conference this last week in Australia who got a run on the ABC radio saying that the US "would be watching with great interest to see how Australia got on with the NBN proposal"...excuse me?

If a country like the US, with its pre-disposition to excellent infrastructure (said by one who has spent sometime on their road system), is waiting to see "how we get on", doesn't that sound a warning bell?

Let's be reminded of the old adage of fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

So I say let's stop the train, re-evaluate, be sure that this technology is the way to go, re-affirm our costings and then decide what is our best, affordable, option.

Why? because we, as a nation, can not afford to be pissing any more money up against the wall, as Labor is wanting to do. The mining boom will not last forever, so let's get these things right and spend the money once.

Grant Petras has been a hospital board member for over 20 years, is a former Regional Health Service Chairman and former President of the Hospital & Health Services Association of SA. Grant currently manages a High Rise Accommodation building on the Gold Coast

Comments

[Neal]

1.

I was always told that if the runaway train is a deemed danger then you have no alternative but to derail the bugger.

[Grantley]

2.

Thanks for dropping in Neal.

Your comment is pertinent......and do not the comments of Access Economics today (budget surplus to become deficit again in 1 year) loosen the first few lengths of line that our run away train is running on??
Is it really too much to ask for just a little bit of fiscal responsibility from Gillard and her band of idiots.

[Louis Hissink]

3.

I tend to the view that the NBN is all about wiring our homes into a Big Brother type of electronic network. Paranoid? Not really - it's a communications pipe controlled by the state - aka the ABC.

That's why they are doing it inspite of the economic stupidity behind its implementation.

Don't forget who is driving the construction of this infrastructure - government.

[Neal]

4.

First Grantley,somebody with infinite patience will have to try and decode the word "fiscal" for the" black duck" and the "Ginga Ninja".

[Grantley]

5.

Common sense and logic should be at the forefront here, particularly when your National Newspaper publishes editorials such as this:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/pm-heres-one-policy-that-deserves-a-second-look/story-e6frg71x-1225932549438

Perhaps now the question becomes not "how to stop the runaway train", but rather how does Gillard & her band if idiots save face on the issue of NBN? Commentary of the last few days should surely be sounding warning bells within govt circles....ahhh...but they probably are mistaking them for division bells !!

Sometimes the true test of leadership is not showing how well you can crash & bash through but rather knowing when to crash through and when to pause and re-evaluate.

For those of you aware various thought philosophies out there, this is a prime example of when to apply "Current view of the situation to Better view of the situation"

[Angry Conservative]

6.

Excellent article Grantley. The onus of proof is on the government to convince people of the merits of the NBN project. So far they haven't even come close to convincing us. It's all very well to talk about the "democratisation of broadband" but most of us already have broadband access and don't need the super speeds of the NBN for our Internet needs, certainly not for the cost involved.
Given it will be the most costly public infrastructure project in our national history, a proper cost-benefit analysis must be done beforehand.
Julia Gillard can hardly call Tony Abbott a wrecker when he wants to save us from this NBN train wreck.

[.]

7.

Will the progress report reveal what has been spent so far?

[Grantley]

8.

I doubt this (Labor incl Rudd) Govt would have any clue what it has spent thus far....and neither would it care, its only taxpayer money afterall....plenty more where that came from.