Hasbeen,
In some ways the old telecom was a dinosaur but the problem was mainly poor management.

Politicians need to be willing to set up competent supervision and to expect world best practice from government owned businesses. Having been a manager in a large heavy industry I am well aware of major poor performance in sections of some private industries. That, as with Telstra, was mainly in the maintenance areas.

Had Telstra not been privatised I believe we would have had fibre to the node years ago. Telstra delayed starting that project once privatisation was in the wind.

Ask yourself how much extra the general public are paying to the big four banks because Which Bank was privatised.

There is an excellent article on economics, published to-day, at the site New Economic Perspectives. It is long and the first of three on Modern Monetary Theory. It starts with an excellent history of how the USA and Europe arrived in the pickle they are in today.

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/04/modern-monetary-theory-overview-part-1.html#comments

Foyle perhaps you should think what a government is before you promote action based on what you think it should be.

The idea that a "currency issuing government" is immune from the need to economise, is the same as the idea that it creates real wealth out of thin air. Children might believe this pure fantasy, but when we grow up we need to put aside childish ways, even if they conflict with our fond wishes; we need to learn to identify parasitic behaviour when we see it, even if it is operating behind the august edifice of the state whose nature you have never examined.

Yes Foyle, big business can be as bad, Newcastle Steel works were like Telecom.

Small business, with out unions is very different. Here is a day of mine on a Tourist Island.

In a slack period, probably November, We had only 7 or 9 guests, & there were only 4 of us working that day. The cook did breakfast, my wife waitressed, I did my radio schedule with the one sail your self yacht we had out, then the barman & I did the 8.00 AM ferry run to the mainland.

Back at the island I got a call to say some frozen stores had turned up at Shute Harbour. I grabbed the sky boat & went off to get them. Meanwhile, my wife did the housemaid duties, the cook cleaned up after breakfast, & the barman opened the bar.

Back again, I went to sort a blocked toilet, discovered it was a full septic tank & pumped that out.

My wife was arranging guest activities, & they could not decide between visiting another resort or going fishing. We decided to do both. The cook organised lunch, then went off for a sleep. I had a shower. We left at 11,00 AM, & with all guests going, the barman came for the fishing, & my wife was hostess. Just the cook was on the resort.

We gave them an hour at South Molle, while the barman slept, then served lunch while heading to a fishing spot.

Back on the island at 3.30 PM, the cook started dinner, the barman opened the bar, & my wife did the afternoon ferry run as deck hand with me. I did my afternoon schedule with the yacht on the way.

Cook & my wife did dinner, & cleaned up after, I had a bite, then gave the barman a couple of hours off for dinner & a kip, before he came back for about 4 hours.

A pretty average day on a resort, but can you imagine how many staff a government department would have required to do the work we did that day?

Dear Hasbeen
Take your point. Sort of. I was a public school teacher converted into a HO type person in mid career. So there are two targets for you.
As a HO person, I recall one Friday when I discovered a problem with our contribution to a commitment with two other states on the following Monday. I stayed over in my office to sort it out. I worked through until Sunday afternoon without sleep (admittedly with decreasing efficiency as the hours dragged by) but managed to get everything ready and rescued for the Monday morning deadline. My boss never knew. No recognition, no O/T, just a feeling of immense satisfaction that I had turned around a potentially embarrassing situation for my state and my betters. Make that "superiors". On the way to work on Monday morning, I heard one of the radio shock jocks sounding off about lazy and incompetent public servants. There's a lot of it about. And yes, I worked with a few — a very few — on whom food would have been wasted. But I also knew the many who were just as determined to do the very best they could as I was, and for no better reason than it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It was certainly not in expectation of some reward in my workplace or some eternal reward in a future life that exists only in the imagination of the deluded.
But thanks, anyway, for setting everybody straight about the superiority of public over private employees

Dear Rechtub,

Wouldn't you do the same in their place?

If you were given a blank cheque to pay for whatever took your fancy, knowing that someone else (and not a family member, but someone you in fact despise) will foot the bill, would it be incompetence on your behalf to make full use of the opportunity?

.....Privatisation of efficient public owned enterprises such as the power industry, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank converts those businesses to less efficient parasitic activities.

F, I think you have this back to front.

Yuyutsu, I think y may have the wrong thread.

Seriously, I can't believe how stupid this guy is, stating countless number of times that WE WILL ACHIVE Surplus AT ANY COST.

Meanwhile, blind Freddie knew that the wheels were wobbly, yet he still managed to convince so many people that we were in great shape.

All I can say to those loyal followers, is welcome to the real world, and as far as pain goes, as the saying goes, you ain't seen nothin yet!