What?

Suggesting government act on behalf of the people who elected them to serve their better interests?

Not bloody likely!

Dan.

There's only one real lesson here and that is. If we had not stupidly with breathtaking asinine absurdity, never ever have privatised Telstra, the income generated by a single monopoly people's telecommunications provider, (7+ billions per) could have paid for the progressive rollout of the people's fibre to the home NBN!

We now no longer own an income earning Telstra and look like we will also privatise the NBN on the spurious grounds, given the history, of never ever being able to afford to finish it!

Simply put, if Labor genuinely desires to govern? Note well, I said govern, not rule! Then it needs to take on and LEARN THE LESSONS OF HISTORY and formulate a policy to reverse some if not all the putrid privatisation of previously publicly owned, income earning infrastructure!

And that formula has to embody, cooperative capitalism Comrade, that then competes with the privatised models and beats the pants clean off of them! ABSOLUTELY DOABLE!

Forcing them to capitulate and sell off to the superior free market private enterprise (employee owned and operated) co-op model and local ownership once again! And with it, massively turbocharge the local domestic economy and all but compel every one dollar to do the work of seven, in the local domestic economy!

And just too easy and the only reason these idiotic and conflicted ideologues and oligarchs are like rabbits frozen in fright by the oncoming headlights of doom if they fail to act as true representatives of the people rather than ( say or do anything) IDIOTIC ideologues seeking only personal power and personal wealth!?

And if the cap fits?
Alan B.

In the vast majority of cases private companies build and run assets far more efficiently than governments. The Rudd vanity project the NBN is prime example of how badly a government can cock things up, and with a legislated monopoly, it is the consumers that foot the bill.

The responsibility of government is to provide needed infrastructure not own and run it (badly)