NBN: What Tony Abbott's digital illiteracy means for rural and regional Australia

http://youtu.be/MkHtCqchV7Y

Australian Minister for Communications Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, the man Prime Minister Abbott insisted (in a breathtaking display of digital ignorance) virtually invented the Internet, has ground the National Broadband Network rollout to a halt.

Leaving rural and regional Australia, its communities and businesses, on the other side of an ever-widening digital divide.

Financial Review 31 October 2013:

Construction firms building the national broadband network have told sub-contractors they will have to wait up to five months before receiving more work, as the rollout of fibre optic cabling grinds to a halt.

NBN Co revealed that in October a 10th of its standard workload was carried out. Small work crews physically rolling out fibre cabling along streets and into homes say they will need to cut dozens of staff if there is no further work.

Figures released on Wednesday indicated fewer than 2000 homes and businesses were passed with fibre during October, compared with 28,000 in September.

The company managing the rollout revealed on Tuesday that just a third of the more than 900,000 homes it planned to pass with fibre over the next 12 months would finish construction. It would not issue contracts to construct the remaining 600,000 existing premises where network build had not yet begun, prompting criticisms from Labor and community groups....

Rather predictably Nationals MP for Cowper and Assistant Minister for Employment, Luke Hartsuyker, is attempting to deny reality - blaming the former Labor government for what the Abbott Government is doing.

According to him; "The Coalition is committed to being honest with Australians about the NBN rollout. We will implement the policy that we took to the election." [The Daily Examiner,1 November 2013,p3]

In March 2013 Hartsuyker stated on his own website that; Up to two million Australian households cannot get decent fixed-line high speed broadband...Regional Australia stands to benefit more than most from the rollout of high speed broadband...The Coalition’s broadband policy will put a priority on rolling out high speed broadband to those communities where it is needed most... 

Eliminating over half a million homes/businesses across the country from the fibre-to-the-premises high speed broadband connection rollout, with no indication if they will be included in any rollout of fibre-to-the-node, does not appear to be meeting the election promises made by the Nationals to NSW North Coast voters.

In the Clarence Valley alone, an estimated 51,346 men, women and children in 23,873 homes now have no idea if or when the National Broadband Network will reach them.

Nationals MP for Page, Kevin Hogan, is yet to make comment.

Hockey accused of punting with taxpayer dollars

Is Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey taking a leaf out of Peter Costello’s game plan and 'cooking' the nation’s books....

The Sydney Morning Herald 29 October 2013:

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens has effectively confirmed that Joe Hockey is blowing several hundred million dollars in an attempt to make his performance as Treasurer look good. Never underestimate the vanity of politicians.

Forget a few thousand here and there on the cost of weddings and Cairns “meetings”, Hockey’s petty budget politics will cost tax payers about $300 million over the next 12 months and another couple of hundred million the next year....

The RBA certainly didn’t ask for Hockey’s $8.8 billion capital injection and didn’t think it was necessary.

That’s the extra $8.8 billion the government is having to borrow and pay interest on while blowing out “Labor’s” 2013-14 budget deficit by the same amount....

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s how Stevens explains Hockey’s borrowing binge:

“The high exchange rate has also had a significant impact on the Reserve Bank's own balance sheet. It led to a decline in the value of the Bank's foreign assets and hence a diminution in the Bank's capital, to a level well below that judged by the Reserve Bank Board to be prudent. This has been a topic of some interest of late. Our annual reports have made quite clear over several years now that, while this rundown in capital in the face of a very large valuation loss was exactly what such reserves were designed for, we considered it prudent to rebuild the capital at the earliest opportunity. It has been clear that the Bank saw a strong case not to pay a dividend to the Commonwealth during this period, preferring instead to retain earnings, so far as possible, to increase the Bank's capital. That rebuilding could in fact have taken quite a few years, given the low level of earnings......

So “Labor’s” deficit blows out to about $40 billion this year, but Hockey’s heroic efforts to reduce the debt in the years ahead will be enhanced by a rich stream of dividends from the RBA. The last time the Aussie had a sharp fall, the RBA paid the government a dividend of more than $5 billion. Trader Joe is playing the forex market with borrowed money.

A reminder of cost of living figures BEFORE Abbott & Co have a chance to dismantle the national carbon pricing system

The Sydney Morning Herald 30 October 2013:

Australia's official inflation rate may be 2.2 per cent, but for most Australians the cost of living is scarcely rising.

New estimates released Wednesday show that for households headed by working Australians the cost of living climbed just 0.9 per cent in the year to September.

The Bureau of Statistics says among households headed by Australians on benefits, old age pensioners and retirees the cost of living climbed 2 per cent.

The estimates are lower than the official inflation figure because they include the cost of mortgage repayments, which has been sliding.

During the year in which the costs faced by working Australians climbed 0.9 per cent the wage price index climbed 3 per cent.

Electricity prices are climbing at their lowest annual pace in six years - just 6.1 per cent....

Economists reject Abbott's Direct Action Plan: "any economist who did not opt for emissions trading "should hand his degree back"

The Sydney Morning Herald 28 October 2013:

A Fairfax Media survey of 35 prominent university and business economists found only two believed direct action was the better way to limit Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Thirty - or 86 per cent - favoured the existing carbon price scheme. Three rejected both schemes.

Internationally renowned Australian economist Justin Wolfers, of the Washington based Brookings Institution and the University of Michigan, said he was surprised that any economists would opt for direct action, under which the government will pay for emissions cuts by businesses and farmers from a budget worth $2.88 billion over four years.

Professor Wolfers said direct action would involve more economic disruption but have a lesser environmental pay-off than an emissions trading scheme, under which big emitters must pay for their pollution.

BT Financial's Dr Chris Caton said any economist who did not opt for emissions trading "should hand his degree back".