Apparently socialism is back in fashion as a result of the big government banking bail-outs in the US and UK of recent weeks.
This is welcome news in Australia, particularly rural and regional Australia, where there has always been a firm belief that government intervention and hand-outs are the ultimate cure for all ills.
Just like a pair of elastic-sided boots and a good Fletcher Jones wool blazer, agrarian socialism never goes out of style.
If you ever had doubts, have a read of the Federal Government’s report into regional telecommunications (www.rtirc.gov.au) just released.
The committee responsible was appointed by the late great Communications Minister Helen Coonan in one of her final acts just before she helped the Howard Government out of office.
Senator Coonan decided to ask a doctor, a lawyer, a politician and a farmer to conduct the inquiry - presumably because they were "independent' from the industry. Unfortunately, after reading what could well be Australia’s most expensive motherhood statement, the word “incompetent” also comes to mind.
There could be a joke there…’what do you get when you ask a doctor, a lawyer, a politician etc… But this isn’t funny.
The report is ignorant at best, deplorable at worst. It makes wild and unsubstantiated statements about the woeful state of telecommunications in the bush and proposes to resolve problems by either regulating Telstra even further, or by throwing more money at Telstra's competitors.
Essentially it's calling for more of the same policies that have failed rural and regional Australia in the past.
One example that sticks out is its call for the regulation of backhaul through “facilitated shared-planning and access arrangements” (i.e. think Stalinist central planning - a forced handover of Telstra investments to competitors with bureaucrats left to decide the terms and conditions)
This has always been at the top of the Christmas wish list of Telstra’s competitors – they’ve already made fortunes piggybacking on Telstra’s investments, so they just keep saying ‘can we have some more please’.
The Review Committee’s backwards-looking report completely ignores the fact that rural and regional Australia has enjoyed its biggest advance in telecommunications ever over the past three years thanks to Telstra’s investment in the Next G™ Network.
Next G™ is transforming the way Australians live and conduct business. (I should disclose this blog was written sitting on the veranda of a farm in Northern NSW using Next G™ wireless broadband)
And it may never have happened.
At one point some of the hardline agrarian socialists were supporting calls for this investment to be given away to competitors.
If the ACCC had agreed to these demands, Telstra would have been forced to shut it down.
For once however the ACCC took a sensible approach and as a result, SingTel and Vodafone are now attempting to build similar competitive networks. Admittedly they both appear to be failing miserably, but at least they are trying.
It is a light-handed regulation, entrepreneurship, competition, and investment that are delivering real world-leading telecommunications for the bush today and will do so in future.
It’s a shame our so-called leaders and ‘experts’ can’t recognise that.