@Shadow Minister: such as it being more efficient to estimate costs with a government organisation.

I am sure both types of organisations can estimate their costs equally well. The difference is it is not in the interests of the owners of a private monopoly to pass that information onto a government regulator, and it is not in their interests of the owners to charge those costs once they have been determined. This is why Telstra hires floors of lawyers to obfuscate and delay the ACCC. In the case of a government organisation the government are the owners, so the problem goes away.

@Shadow Minister: Where are your links?

I've mentioned examples before Shadow. Australia post competes well in the parcel delivery space against private companies, unlike they has a universal service obligation requiring them to cross subsidise, and still pays a dividend to the government http://auspost.com.au/about-us/australia-post-profit.html

Medibank Private is a government organisation providing cheaper rates than its private competitors, generating $3.9 billion in profits in 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medibank_Private

We've been over this before. It's not private ownership that makes things efficient. It's competition. - the threat that if you aren't efficient you die. If you worship private enterprise as the god of efficiency, you are worshipping a fake god. The appropriate one is competition.

The way to engender competition is to create markets. Which brings us to...

@Shadow Minister: As for Hazelwood,

That is a good news story. But what they did at the same time is restructured the industry, eliminating vertical integration and creating wholesale, retail and delivery markets. Hazlewood either fixed itself or went broke.

@Shadow Minsiter: That is pure drivel.

You say that despite both parties trying to get them to upgrade it, both failing, and the NBN being the result. Your right - there is drivel here somewhere.

@Shadown Minister: There are plenty of high speed connections,

So you have one your house do you? Thought not. You could pay to put it in. Work on several $K per km, plus at least $1K per month to get it connected. The NBN delivers to same thing for $24+GST/mo.

@Shadow Minister: I am forced to pull in copper lines for the fire

Yeah, we've been over this. In my experience fibre is much more reliable. It's not like there aren't batteries that have to be maintained in the system anyway - the fire front panel has them. It a case of old men controlling the regulations I think.

@Shadow Minister: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/rudd-guru-slams-nbn-monopoly-as-deal-will-harm-consumers/story-fn59niix-1226137347106

Is his complaint about how the USO is funded? It seems like he wants it funded more transparently. I not sure how that is relevant to the NBN. The NBN is a mechanism for upgrading the network. The mechanism used to implement USO is independent of that. The article tries to imply there is some ban of competition, but later is forced to acknowledge there isn't.

Rstuart,

I think you are just making this up.

" In my experience fibre is much more reliable" Really? What experience is this? What do you do in the event of a power failure?

"It's not private ownership that makes things efficient. It's competition" Precisely, which is why the NBN is a bad idea. It is hugely anti competition.

" Hazlewood either fixed itself or went broke" - Going broke under state ownership, making a profit under private ownership.

Australia post makes a profit and competes largely because its large infrastructure is government supplied, and so the playing field is far from level.

I do have high speed cable that gave me 25Mb/s except I found that ASDL2+ also gives me 15Mb/s and is cheaper using a different provider.