With luck, nbn will get (a) an almighty kick in the pants due to their poor performance in the Senate enquiry, (b) more and better support from a non-trogodyte PM's office and (c) a few months off the front pages of our newspapers, both dead-tree and electronic variety.

I said "with luck" because they will need it. Unless management wake up the a few truths, government policy re nbn is both rational and consistent and they spend more time doing their jobs better and less time covering their corporate backsides, Australia's electronic future will be bleak indeed.

The article and comments are, at best, irrelevant to the impending new reality. Without taking into account the transformation of the global economic and political system they sow more confusion and disillusionment. Turnbull and every LNP member who has spoken in the last 24 hours are dedicated to the free trade agenda.. Australia is to secure deregulation of the labour market via the China FTA, and TISA will make this deregulation global. With sovereign control lost , who “gets IT”? -and Unprincipled Shorten doesn't have a clue.

Hoity Toity Leslie

Your comments are, at best, irrelevant ravings.

Your metadata (something Malcolm defined so well) is not worth retaining. http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/malcolm-turnbull-lists-ways-to-avoid-having-your-metadata-collected/story-fnjwnfzw-1227279240081

Mine is :)

Poida

Aidan,

I don't know what other people will do or what they think but, as I've said several times, I would not vote Liberal with Abbott, and even more so with Turnbull. I don't have to tell you that I would never vote Labor, so it's informal for me. At least my conscience will be clear, and if people go for Labor, so bet it.

Informal votes are used by those not intelligent enough to understand policy differences, and by those who don't give a damn about their country.

I feel a new beginning is coming for Australia, with such a positive thinking, well spoken, new PM. Welcome Malcolm!

I agree with Al Blake that "Australia's new PM 'gets IT'" (Online Opinion, 16 September 2015). On Monday night I was at an event on digital copyright at Parliament House. Mr. Turnbull was not there (he was busy getting elected nearby), but would have been at home in this forum.

The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) is an interesting experiment, but it is a bit early to see how it goes. My preference would have been for DTO to be in the Department of Finance which has more experience working with other departments on practical implementation of IT.

The current government's mixed-mode NBN is a clever political approach, as the mix of technologies used for delivery can be changed depending on how well they work, what they cost and what other priorities there are.
Al Blake's call for the ICT industry to rise to the challenge is timely. But to deliver a "connected, technologically literate and effective Australia" we need other industries involved, key to this being the education industry and the creative industries. Otherwise all the NBN will doing is acting as a virtual mega-container ship: importing overseas content and services, then sending ship-loads of cash overseas to pay for the imports.

Service industry jobs are now open to on-line competition from overseas, not only accountants and lawyers, but also university lecturers (and soon school teachers). The solution is not to lower a virtual trade barrier, but to skill up our workforce, so they can compete on-line.

Links at: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2015/09/first-digital-australian-pm.html