As Farr writes
"NOW that the symbols, some of them clangers, have left the political stage the Federal Government is confronting the less pleasant aspects of implementing power.===
And it is encountering difficulties which threaten to see it indicted for having promised the Earth but delivering sod-all.
Last week at a Sydney conference, Broadband and Beyond, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy let loose his frustrations.
He tossed aside his prepared speech and instead told stunned conference attendees how working with the Department of Communications was like a daily episode of Yes Minister. He told of public servants refusing to provide material he had requested, and suggesting he get his own legal advice if he wanted to challenge their position."
Farr was wrong to endorse Rudd over Howard, he produces some fine excuses for it, justifications courtesy of Rudd, As Far continued
"Few issues separated Labor and the Coalition at the last election like Kevin Rudd's championing of a national broadband network.===
This was the issue which Labor hoped would reveal that John Howard lacked modern thinking and depict Rudd as a man of the technological future.
As much as Labor's emphasis on climate change and Rudd's showing off in Mandarin, it was a totem issue marking the freshness of the new direction on offer.
"It is a clear and decisive break with the past," the ALP said in a policy document."
But Rudd's plan was unworkable, expensive and his supporters chose to ignore those aspects of it. Still do.
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Broadband promise more than a click away
By Malcolm Farr
NOW that the symbols, some of them clangers, have left the political stage the Federal Government is confronting the less pleasant aspects of implementing power.
And it is encountering difficulties which threaten to see it indicted for having promised the Earth but delivering sod-all.
Last week at a Sydney conference, Broadband and Beyond, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy let loose his frustrations.
He tossed aside his prepared speech and instead told stunned conference attendees how working with the Department of Communications was like a daily episode of
Yes Minister. He told of public servants refusing to provide material he had requested, and suggesting he get his own legal advice if he wanted to challenge their position.
Few issues separated Labor and the Coalition at the last election like Kevin Rudd's championing of a national broadband network.
This was the issue which Labor hoped would reveal that John Howard lacked modern thinking and depict Rudd as a man of the technological future.
As much as Labor's emphasis on climate change and Rudd's showing off in Mandarin, it was a totem issue marking the freshness of the new direction on offer.
"It is a clear and decisive break with the past," the ALP said in a policy document.
Labor had promised voters that within six months of gaining office, work would begin on a $10 billion hook-up of 98 per cent of Australians to high-speed computer services.
The project would be completed in five years, an unprecedented effort.
However, this race to the digital future has had a sluggish start more suited to the steam age.
It is likely that the first anniversary of the Rudd Government will come around before a tender for the broadband roll-out has been granted. The initial six-month deadline for selecting a tender, which comes up this May, will have passed.
This means the brighter economic and social conditions Labor pledged would flow from boosted broadband would be postponed further.
And in political terms, the Rudd Government will be open to the accusation that the broadband pledge was an election campaign device rather than a policy, and was ignored once it had achieved its purpose of helping gain power.
There are many reasons for the delay, one being that the original forecasts were much too optimistic for a task as huge and complex as re-wiring a nation. There are scores of technical, legal, probity and business issues to be resolved.
Another is that Stephen Conroy and his department secretary Patricia Scott have differing views on how to complete the task.
One industry figure observed: "They're certainly not peas in a pod."
It could be a project in which the new secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Terry Moran, might have to involve himself.
The amount of work needed just to prime the actual roll-out is daunting. First, Conroy has to appoint a panel of experts in such fields as legal matters to ensure the tender is watertight.
That panel has yet to be appointed, despite being expected almost every week.
Then, the Government needs to appoint a panel to advise on the tenders themselves. Then the tenders have to be let, offers considered and negotiated, and someone selected.
It could be this process will not be completed until the second half of next year.
It's worthwhile recalling what we were told this project would deliver, once the Government had thrown in its $4.7 billion and a private partner an equal amount.
An analysis by digital company Alcatel-Lucent, "Broadband 2020: A broadband perspective for the coming decade", listed the great expectations of faster virtual contact.
Health care will be improved through treatments supplied by computer and patients would leave hospital earlier because they could be monitored on-line.
There would be benefits for education and provision of government services, our international competitiveness would rise and more people could work at home and spend more time with their families.
Labor itself didn't hold back. It said that the proposed network would boost national economic activity by up to $30 billion a year, create jobs and diversify the media.
Well, it might if you are prepared to wait long enough.
The related plan to get computers into 937 needy schools is also colliding with reality.
The money to buy the computers is meant to be distributed before June 30 but no one knows who will pay for the necessary power outlets or the airconditioning needed to keep them humming.
As former Treasurer Peter Costello once said to this Government:"It's not easy, is it?"
Delay hits Rudd's $8bn fibre network
Michael Sainsbury
KEVIN Rudd's ambitious plan to help fund an $8 billion national broadband network has been hit by a delay of at least four months because of a longer than expected timeframe for confirming an expert panel and pressure from telecoms companies to extend the process.
A new timetable for the fibre-to-the-node network, intended to reach 98 per cent of Australian homes, will be outlined when Communications Minister Stephen Conroy names an expert panel to advise the Government on the network. The announcement may be as early as today.
Treasury secretary Ken Henry is expected to take a spot on the six-member expert panel to advise on the project, joining Communications Department chief Patricia Scott.
The two bureaucrats will sit alongside industry experts and corporate directors.
The Government, which will tip $4.7 billion of taxpayer funds into the broadband network, originally pushed to finalise the project by June or July.
This panel replaces a now-disbanded 13-member panel set up by the Howard government, which included five bureaucrats. As well, industry feedback has convinced the Government to extend its timeframe to achieve the best result. Last week, Senator Conroy held a meeting with a broad industry group called the Fibre-to-the-Premises Group, representing most of the industry outside Telstra. Once the panel was announced it was expected to consult until the end of the month, after which tender documents would be released, sources said.
The bidding deadline is expected to be set for the end of July, giving the Government three to four months to examine the tenders and make a decision on the network.
A spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed that the minimum requirement would be fibre out to the node, or streetside cabinet, network for 98 per cent of Australian homes.
Beyond the node, service providers will be able to use either shorter copper loops to homes and business using ADSL2+ or VDSL, or wireless technology. The network is expected to take up to five years to complete.
"The Government fully appreciates the growing capabilities of wireless technology and their benefits in providing broadband access on the move," Senator Conroy has said.
"We see this role as totally consistent with, and complementary to, fibre to the node."
The Government has committed $4.7 billion to the planned network, which could take the form of either debt or equity, but no decision has been made on the future of a $958 million grant to the Optus-Elders consortium, Opel. That funding is part of the previous Government's regional broadband plan.
It was announced in July, but the consortium needs to complete a number of hurdles before the cheque is handed over.
Senator Conroy opposed the plan at the time and has agreed to hand Telstra documents about the bidding process, but has said he will honour the contractual commitments.
The last of these was a detailed business plan that Opel handed to the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy in early January.
Senator Conroy received the report last month but has yet to make a decision. "The minister is considering a report from the Department on Opel," the spokesman said.
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