Currently in the Senate is a bill to force the separation of Telstra’s wholesale and retail arms. The Labor government desperately wanted to have the legislation passed by last night, even going so far as to make concessions to independent Senator Nick Xenephon in order to get him to vote on their side. But the opposition have pulled the douche card, using stalling tactics to delay the vote until Monday.
The problem with delaying the vote is that all the politicians were supposed to pack up and go home today. According to the SMH, by forcing the vote to be delayed until Monday, the opposition have essentially just cost the taxpayer “hundreds of thousands of dollar“.
The Labor government needs the Telstra separation bill to go through so that Telstra’s role in the NBN is assured. Obviously this is the main reason the Opposition has delayed the vote until next week, as they try and convince the Independent senators to change their minds.
But the issue here is that for a party who spends so much time talking about the cost to taxpayers with an infrastructure investment to delay a vote on an issue at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars (and according to this Computerworld article, the starting cost is around $500,000) to the taxpayer is the epitome of douchieness.
At least it should provide plenty of food for thought for your questions for Malcolm Turnbull…
[SMH]
boc
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 10:41 AMWell I guess it could be said from their point of view – it would be better to waste hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars than billions of tax payer dollars.
Still I hate all this partisan nonsense. The opposition regardless of who it is never wants to accept the government’s policies; even if it’s the best policy ever written.
Retarded politicians – you’re supposed to be working for our benefit. Not for your benefit and not for your party’s benefit.
I want this NBN to happen even though I believe it’d cost less than what the government is proposing (there’s always a lot of waste in government projects).
ThePengwin
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 12:31 PMThe only way to have your views properly represented in parliament is to be a politician yourself.
Thomas
Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 2:09 PMStill doesn’t work. Even in Parliment you have to toe a line, and that line is always a compromise on quite a few of your beliefs. The only way to truly get your views across is to stage a coup.
mike
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 10:56 AMSurely you can’t put all the blame on the opposition. It was the labor government that held on to all the information until just before the vote had to be made.
Rossco
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:07 AMAs much as I want fibre into my home I take the view that a full cost benefit analysis should be done on all projects, especially those of this size. If this plan is so good, why are Labor so reluctant to release all of the documentation to the house of reps and the senate, not just a summary of the business plan? I’d rather have government actions be scrutinised so that we know we are getting the best thing for us than have some politician try to convince us that he/she knows best.
It sickens me to think that the media (yes Giz included) give this government such a free pass on so many issues and pick on the opposition for doing their job in scrutinising what the government is doing… you know, what the media should be doing!
For all its worth, bring on the NBN. I just wish that the government would be a bit more transparent, give the Australian public all the details and I am sure the opposition would not have a leg to stand on this issue, but the government’s behavior seems deceptive to me regardless of the alleged good intent…
Obee-one
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:11 AMI use to be a conservative voter but the latest lot of tossers heading the liberal party are just behaving like bitter sore losers.
So hell bent on opposing anything the sitting government puts up that they are forgetting what they actually stand for Business!!
Holding back one of the best way to move Telstra’s big fat arse out of the way to bring this country into the 21st century with a real fast broadband network.
Are these old idiots so stupid and so technology challenged to really understand how they are retarding the future potential of this country.
It is time we pulled our finger!!
Angry Angry Tech Head!
matt
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:39 AMcan someone tell me ONE good, interesting liberal policy that isn’t ‘scrap’ this or ‘oppose’ that?
ok, so they wanna save lots of money, I get that… but why?
blueevo
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 12:07 PMare you like 15? the opposing party has been like this for the past 100 years. They oppose and scrutinise what the party in power does.
Pretty one sided article there Giz and im not a liberal supporter btw.
Jared
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:23 AMIf Labor had a good track record of delivering…..anything on time and on budget this could be a different story. But hey! They don’t!
Nads
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:42 AMAnd the Liberals track record of implementing ANY important national infrastructure or programs……
“oh what a pretty tumbleweed rolling by”
Though I agree more transparency is always good but asking for a business plan including risk assessments though it sounds prudent is useless as this is not a private venture it has the governments backing.
Rossco
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 12:21 PMNads, they are using taxpayer money (our money) so it is not useless for taxpayers to know they are getting value for money. If the plan is so good they have nothing to hide by cooperating with opposition requests (which they continually deny) and we can just get on with it. The opposition may be being unreasonable with their delaying tactics here but if the government were reasonable about providing what was requested (information on costings for a public project that could be scrutinised), those tactics would not be required.
Secondly, just look at the BER rorts and the insulation scheme, if those were run like a business instead of a feeding trough for dishonest operators, many of us may not be as sceptical about this government’s ability to deliver this on time and on budget. If we are not sure if the plan and budget are realistic, how can we be confident without it being tested under scrutiny and due process?
Jared Jacobsen
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 1:57 PMI didn’t say anything about the Liberals…you did. What i said is Labor cannot deliver anything on time or on budget. History clearly states this as fact. Don’t get me started on corruption. If you take a trip down memory lane, its always the Liberals having to fix up Labor’s mistakes – i’ll stop there this isn’t about Labor vs Liberal, this is Labor trying to push legislation through Parliament and asking members of Parliament to just ‘believe’ them on their word?
Conroy is a joke and to hear Gizmodo Aus almost backing this unintelligent goose hell bent on filtering what you can or can’t read (see China and Communism) is a joke. Its called scrutiny from MP’s and they damn well deserve to scrutinize 35.7 Billion dollars worth of tax payers money. Labor don’t get enough scrutiny.
A Greens senator (don’t get me started on them) said earlier this week he has been privy to information of far greater importance to national security than a bit of fibre cable and he has never been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. Labor have something to hide and want to avoid/delay all scrutiny they possibly can. Its obvious we will all benefit from faster internet, but having to produce a ‘sales pitch’ instead of actual documents is just ludicrous. If this was the Liberals doing this Labor would be screaming bloody murder! Call an inquiry! Round the troops! Call the union mates up! Sheesh.
Ward Paterson
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 3:03 PMLest we forget if it wasn’t for the Libs/Nats taking control of our economy (and resurecting it from the beating Labor gave it) between 1997-2007, the GFC would have totally Fcuked Australia.
So, IMO, if the Coalition want to wait to make sure everything adds up, I’m willing to accept their decision.
matt
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:31 AMI said it before and I’ll say it again: TELSTRA SHOULD BE SPLIT REGARDLESS!
if they feel there needs to be further debate about the NBN then it should be done properly, not by tacking that debate onto other, perfectly reasonable bits of policy just because its a prerequisite.
this is just adhoc desperation. the politicians are useless, could never do anything properly.
matt
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:40 AMfyi:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8170601/nbn-bill-set-to-pass-senate-by-noon
Dean T
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 11:56 AMCommon giz, how hard is it to do some math. The computerworld link says that it is $500k per day based on dividing the yearly OPEX (~$175M – the higher end of the scale too) by 365 and rounding up. So the $500k per day is regardless of whether parliament is in session. So how you decide that $500k is the “starting cost” is beyond me. If you want to argue that the cost is increased with parliament in session then you’ll need to get a breakdown of the fixed and variable costs.
“Filibustering” (as the computerworld article wants to call it, though this is not possible in Australia with members not being able to speak past their alloted time) or stalling tactics are tools used throughout the political world by both Governments and Oppositions to further their political interests. In my opinion, it’s ridiculous to suggest that an opposition take a non-partisan stance on a policy they disagree with so strongly just because the Government and their supporters wish it were so.
Pants
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 1:17 PMGiz,
I love your site.
I love your network.
Poor, Poor politically opinionated article.
Ward Paterson
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 3:06 PM…. Giz is just a front for Labor driven propaganda ;-p
Darren
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 1:29 PMok guys, the reason the alp hasnt released the complete business plan is because of the commercial in confidence costings it contains (to do with telstra and the nbn), of which, these costings dont mean diddly squat until telstra is split up with appropriate legislation. so, the current round of “RELEASE THE BUSINESS PLAN!!! ARRRGH” lib-speak is simply an attempt to wreck because the government cant release the business plan until the split (and appropriate compensation to telstra) is passed into law. there are a whole raft of reasons why the telstra\nbn\government agreement needs to be kept confidential until law is passed, not the least of which is for the security of the share holders and the stability of the market. both sides can spin it anyway they want but that’s the reality. and in the end, a business plan is only as good as the market is firm.
i agree with previous commenter stating that the whole project probably wont cost what the government is projecting – espescially since it’s an infrastructure cost that will be paid back by the market rather than directly by the tax payer (though we are initally funding it).
im just waiting for the day that someone pipes up and says: “hey! we need cash, how about we privatise all this amazing high speed data infrastructure?? what a great idea, how come no one thought of this before?!” *slap forehead*
attila
Friday, November 26, 2010 at 1:47 PMGiz’s slavish support of anything NBN related is getting very old – the repetition of the silly CW estimate of $500K “starting cost” is a new low however.
Steve
Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 4:46 PMFuck Telstra. Any plane to dilute their influence in the next generation of internet/wireless infrastructure should be supported.
This is a company that has performed with such incompetance and greed, it’s almost staggering. But because of its monopolistic nature, can pretty much do these things with impunity.
They’re continuing to roll out obsolete (but more importantly to them, cheap) Pair Gain systems in newer establishments to save a few bucks of copper at the expense of future-proofing.
For all the problems the Americans have, I still prefer their ‘Big 4′ carrier system (Verizon, AT/T, Sprint, T-Mobile) which forces each to maintain some decency and value for their customers to remain competitive.