scamp1976

I can tell you that 8 years for a project this massive is.... optimistic to say the least . And yes, I agree with you that Telstra should never have been given monopoly on the infrastructure. That's why Australia still has ridiculous caps on their broadband.

ABCDiamond

They just need to find the investors from the private sector now..., before the light really turns green for go.

IvanM

No 1 this is Labour's big project and there will be a big fight in the senate to get that money. Happy clappy Stephen Fielding from Family First will be grumpy his bargain on filtering maybe dropped.

Fibre to the premise is the most reliable and fastest medium available. If done right the speeds could be upped in future with more advanced termination equipment just like we upped copper from a few baud to 25mbs download now.

Wireless is good for certain applications where it is unviable to lay very costly fibre. The problem with wireless is that it can be susceptible to interference and can be laggy. I manage some sites on Next G and compared to satellite it is a godsend but reliability is an issue. You also sometimes need a whopping great big aerial to get enough signal.

For home users this gives possibilities such as high def video on demand bypassing traditional media companies although I suspect they will corrupt the legislation. Traditional phone lines will go and telephony will go over the net.

For business in non metro areas this opens up greater possibilities for operating. I know a guy in Tasmania who will be chuffed at this because his worldwide business involves uploading and downloading a lot of files from clients and vice versa.

Another benefit for business will be the ability to have someone to use other than Telstra for backhaul. Right now it costs more for a link from Tas to Mel than for Melbourne to Tokyo. Basslink will change that.

IvanM

Tony Abbott was recently lamenting the way the Liberals lost their economic credentials with silly spending promises in their last term. Something else worth looking at is Howard's record as treasurer in the eighties. The promises of everlasting mineral wealth got to his head. Any government running up a budget deficit in that minerals boom would be regarded as incompetent.

Now that stimulii have been announced and billions of free money given out to us the budget has been reversed. Also factor in the economic slow down and the associated drop in GST and tax receipts you get the idea.

The big factor is a massive drop in resource exports which earned all levels of government royalties. The NSW budget is in deficit due to a large drop in stamp duty.

Compared to elsewhere Australia's government debt and trade position is healthy. This year will prove whether the current budget and tax levels are sustainable with the new commodities market. The blot of the horizon is the continuous current account deficit which indicates a previous over reliance on overseas borrowing. That has to be repaid and resourced internally instead in a period markets are rather unwilling to do so.

IvanM

And to pass the legislation.