It has been 6 months since the coalition has inherited the rolling train wreck that is the NBN. Labor's staggering incompetence and lies are coming to the surface as it is becoming clear that the NBN was going to cost nearly 3x what Labor claimed, and be delivered about a decade late, contrary to the claims Labor was making right up to the election.

To make it worse, the premium high speed product was being ignored by the majority of users, and the business case for the NBN was entirely fanciful, if not fraudulent.

"ALMOST $7 billion of government funds have been ploughed into the National Broadband Network to complete just 3 per cent of the rollout and NBN Co’s much-vaunted “Gigabit Nation” service does not have a single end-user customer.

It also emerged there was only one end customer on NBN Co’s 250 megabits-per-second service - which is one quarter of the speed of the gigabit service - in a fillip to the Coalition’s model of a cheaper, slower NBN."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nbns-7bn-bill-for-3pc-of-network/story-fn59niix-1226837728018

And:

"TAXPAYERS have been spending about $7300 per user to subsidise poorly performing satellite broadband services, the Coalition has declared, as NBN Co advances plans to fix problems with the service.

NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski told a heated Senate estimates committee hearing on Tuesday that the interim satellite service left some people in regional and remote communities with services that were “subsistence level in a broadband world”."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/nbn-fix-costing-7300-per-user/story-e6frgaif-1226838630755

If Conroy had as CEO of a private company had presided over such a debacle, he would be now looking at an extended jail term.

Dear SM,

You should not treat those guys as incompetent fools:

<<To make it worse, the premium high speed product was being ignored by the majority of users, and the business case for the NBN was entirely fanciful, if not fraudulent.>>

This is all the fault of the Liberals, which by being elected ruined the NBN's business model!

The income was meant to be derived by coercion, not by fraud, with jail sentences for anyone who fails to take up their premium product and making it a criminal offence to disconnect their link to one's home or any of their surveillance devices connected to it.

I don't suppose any of you would be interested in an article on the subject by someone who knows what he's talking about?

http://delimiter.com.au/2013/12/12/please-accept-apologies-wrong-turnbull/

"In that past three years, I have attempted to treat all statements by all sides of politics on their merits. I have treated the Coalition’s statements on the NBN seriously, and I have treated Labor’s statements on the NBN seriously. I have treated the Greens’ statements on the NBN seriously.

Many readers have argued with me about this approach. They have pointed out that Turnbull, and others within the Coalition, have very often taken an inconsistent approach to the NBN, stating one thing and then doing another. There are examples littered throughout the past three years; I need not bring them all up individually....

....In this context, my approach of trying to listen to all sides has rubbed many the wrong way. Many readers believe I have been trying to achieve “balance for balance’s sake” instead of trying to get to the truth of the matter. I haven’t been doing that: I’ve honestly been trying to get to the truth of the matter. Because of this, I’ve argued long and hard with many of you about this issue.

Well, I am here today to formally apologise. I was wrong to have faith in Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition on this issue. You were all right, and I was wrong. Turnbull does indeed appear to be attempting to “demolish” the NBN."

Etc....

"Turnbull does indeed appear to be attempting to “demolish” the NBN."

Well lets bloodily well hope so, we sure can't afford it. It is another of those McMansions people are building, when they only need & can only afford a bungalow.

We were told the NBN would deliver 20 mb/s in this area. They may as well pull the pin on it altogether. The costs are far to great for a lousy 20 mb/s. We will have to wait for proper politics to get a the required speeds.

Hasbeen,

Yes, I see your point.

Reminds me of the WA Liberal govt at the very start of the 80's.

Faced with population growth, but devoid of vision, they decided, not to expand the metropolitan rail network, but instead to close down one of the four lines - the Fremantle line. Close it down they did, and it sat there hosting tumbleweeds until they were voted out and Labor took over.

Labor immediately re-opened the line upon election. Not only that but they set about electrifying and modernising Perth metropolitan trains. They built a new northern line to cater for the vast growth in this region, and eventually expanded south to Mandurah as well.

Perth now has one of the best metropolitan rail systems in the country and is keeping pace with population increase.

I'm sure the govt had to borrow for those infrastructure improvements....

Perth couldn't function nearly as well without them.

Poirot,

Please stop dredging up pinheads and presenting them as "Some one who knows what he is talking about". Renai LeMay has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and simply writes what others tell him. I read a couple of his articles and I doubt he even knows what a fibre optic cable looks like.

I live less than 2km from a network hub and get 25Mb/s on ASDL2, and have just commissioned a Gigabit copper network using Cat6 cable at work. Copper can easily handle high speed, but the longer the distance the less the speed. The whole point of FTTN is to reduce the distances from say 5km to 500m which increases the speed 10x. This gives vastly increased speed at a fraction of the cost. Considering that about 90% of those connected to the NBN have taken packages of 25Mb/s or less, the need to triple the cost of the network (and the rental costs) to make a fewer gamer nerds happy seems a pointless thing that only Labor would do.

Poirot,

Please stop presenting pinheads as "someone who knows what he is talking about. Renai LeMay has a bachelor of Arts in English literature, and from what I have read of his articles, would not know a fibre optic cable if he saw one. The "Delimiter" is a blog containing almost his exclusive opinion pieces almost completely devoid of any actual technology, and feature laughable articles where Scott Ludlam of the greens (with a qualification as a graphics designer) describes the coalition (with the creator and CEO of a large telecoms company) as technically illiterate.

Even the FO back bone is inadequate and would not be able to cope with everyone using the high speed packages.

Sounds a bit like here Poirot. I don't know who closed the Gold Coast railway line, but it was no use when they did. Pity they did not leave the line gathering tumbleweed, as they could not afford to rebuild it when the time for it came.

Now we have a line to the backblocks serving not much useful purpose. They had to open a couple of new suburbs to make it work, & Brisbane folk can't catch a train to the beach, as they can in Sydney.

On the subject, new technology will overtake the NBN long before it becomes useful for most of us.

we need a royal commision into the issue immediatly
but that wont happen..why?

someone in telecomunications set the whole thing up
from the public service that now owns it to the experts that advised him on how to do it/to the public service who figured out how to keep it off THE BOOKS

HEC KEVIE WAS A PUBLIC SERVANT/UNDER THGAT GOSS TOSSER..WHEN GODD GOT PETER BEATUP THE LAWYER TO LET SIR JOE OFF BY PUTTING IN A VIP FROM THE YOUNG NATS

NO ITS A TOO ROTTEN MESS
BUT WE NED TO KNOW..royal commision[or be revealed its just more spin.like spin docters threat/t
thread
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6282&page=0

im sick of these spin name-calling games
get serious or get another job
http://investmentwatchblog.com/meet-the-billionaires-behind-government-agendas/
we deserve to know who told who what and follow the money
[the default clause frOM MEMORY ALLOWS IT AL TO GO BACK TO TELECOM/OWNED IN THE MAIN BY THE PUBLIC SERVICE PENSION FUND

nope stop the spin
this isnt going anywhere...just talk spin blab blab blurb
http://www.stirringtroubleinternationally.com/2012/02/06/why-would-anyone-become-a-politician-if-not-to-get-rich-and-enjoy-the-perks-of-office/
im, sic..of it.
govern..or go
http://www.naturalblaze.com/2014/03/13-ways-foodies-are-changing-food.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576849/Ministers-ignore-recommendation-World-Health-Organisation-drastically-cut-sugar-intake-avoid-obesity-heart-disease-diabetes.html
Eric Schmidt to dictators: '
http://xrepublic.tv/node/7836
Dictators are taking a new approach in their You don’t turn off the internet: you infiltrate it'
Br
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/07/google-eric-schmidt-jared-cohen

THE NBN WILL trackback..to
a condition of the tendER..IN WA..needing to get the fibre to wa/for the super sky watching array thing/..that will produce BILLIONS OF MEGA BIT DATA AND NEED BE SENT WORLD WIDE/IT WAS THE FIRST STAGE COMPLETED..CAUSE IT ECHOES BUT DIMLY BY PROXIMITY...BUT IT NEEDS THE MEGA DATA/IT WILL BE OUR BIGGEST DATA SENDER EVER..no doudt public service will lead back to there/to kevie.to the default terms that send it baCK TO TELSTRA/NICE WIBNDFALL..TO WHOEVER RUNS THE SCAM/GREAT INCOME STREAM YEARS DOWN THE TRACK

IT WILL OUT RANK SELLING THE COMMONWEALth bank for 9 billion
when today thats how much proffit just one common /privatised bank makes

bah..hang the lot of em
proceeds of crime will get the cash VALUES BACK..CAUSE ITS ALL HELD in trusts run by the same elites /no it will go no further/tony will syop funding it/by default it goes back to telestra con..full STOP

NEXT ITEM PLEASE
ya know china has convicted 800 judges this year alone[the new normal]
the corruption is finaly being stamped down on [in china]
here..dont count on it.

its too intrenched/from lawyers making laws/to judges defending and judging by the laws/till the appeals to lawyers running the higher courts[sepperation of powers ..lo, dont make me laugh]..corruPTION IS THE SAME SAME ELITES Sending the middle class down/yet again
http://whatreallyhappened.com/

read the links and weep
then stop ya crying and tell tony to play with a straight bat ..or
we see his leg blocking the true target..lbw

A bit of fun on the news tonight. We haven't quite gone back to a man with a red flag walking in front of the cars, but damn near.

This fool tram system has started practicing on the Gold Coast. There have been so many accidents, & near misses, the thing is running at not much more than walking pace, with, wait for it, a police car preceding it, driving very slowly.

How anyone who has seen the mess that is Melbourne traffic could ever think a tram is a good idea, I really can't imagine.

I can only wonder who paid whom & how much, to put this monstrosity on the Gold Coast strip.

Sorry for the double post, clicked the wrong tab.

It would appear that the only people backing the old NBN of fibre to the home for everyone are those with little to no technical know how or background.

I suppose I shouldn't have called Renai LeMay a pinhead, but his articles are so full of technical inaccuracies that his blatant labor propaganda just seems like another lie.

So far Labor has splashed $7bn against the wall and has very little to show for it. The projected cost of their scheme would have been 4x what they promised voters and many years late.

I am connected to the NBN and I love it.
Before it's arrival I was on a pathetic satellite connection and was paying $29 for 1 Gig at a very slow speed.
Now I have 20Gigs for $55 and it is very rapid and reliable.
Thank you labor for giving it to me

The whole NBN plan was a train wreck waiting to happen, because what's the point in providing ultra fast internet to every house, in trust that they may use it.

It would be fair to say that a large majority of households use internet to shop, connect to face book/email, browse the net and download games and pornos.

At best, governments should provide the infrastrucure and users should pay to have it taken to their homes/businesses and connected.

besides, so many these days use the likes of hot spot on their phones, then connect to a tablet of lap top.

Land based anything in communications is fast becoming for this who need it.

I sometimes wonder if John Howard and co would not have been better off plunging us into huge debt, because at least then we would not only have limited labors ability to waste money,but we would also have something to show for it, as opposed to the unfunded, or il planned policy left overs we have today, not to mention the illegals debacle that Tony Abbott has rectified in just six months, something labor couldn't achieve in six years.

Rudd, Gillard,Rudd will be remembered for genrations as the economic vandals they were.

Poirot, I read the link you gave but I soon realised he did not know
what he was talking about. I could not find what his background was
until I read SM's post.
Well it is this way; have you heard the complaints by the people who
have been connected to the NBN ?

They are complaining that it is not as fast as expected.
Of course it is not faster, anyone who has a clue will know that.
You can only receive data as fast as the remote computer to which you
are connected can dish it out.

Fundermental 1.
Data is sent in packets of variable number of bytes.
With the fibre the packets arrive in your computer much faster.
The time between packets is increased by the time the NBN has to wait
for the next packet from the remote computer.
Because even with ADSL you had to wait for packets to arrive because
the remote computer was busy putting out data elsewhere.
With fibre that delay is unchanged.

The politicians deceived everyone into believing everything would
happen at lightening speed.
There is another point, there will be an increase in speed, but it is
just that you will need an oscilloscope to measure it !

Howard has got something to show for it. He built a railroad to nowhere.

Dear Robert,

Obviously you live in a remote area which had no internet service before. Now you have internet access and you are happy - and I am happy for you too.

But that has nothing in particular to do with the NBN: infrastructure was missing altogether in your area and that has been fixed - good on you, but it does not require digging up all urban and suburban streets across Australia which had ADSL for decades, taking out the copper networks there which people are happy with and replacing it with something else they don't need.

Most people require a connection to the internet, but the details are not important and except for hard-gamers and certain professionals, the speed beyond about 1Mbit/sec matters not at all (in fact it can be a curse when you pay for volume, because then if you open the wrong link it downloads volumes before you even realise your mistake). Same for volume: my minimum program gives me up to 50GB/month without me ever asking for it, of which I only use about 5-6GB, I just don't need the rest.

And by-the-way, I pay much less than you (for my unneeded 50GB): $55/month for 20GB is exorbitant, but I suppose being out in the country it's better than having nothing at all.

We have to get away from this notion that we are a free country, because now, more so than ever, we just cant afford it any more.

I use an ipad, either with a pre paid sim, or my phones hot spot and i get great speed.

If i was a business and wanted to send large files, then surely its not unreasonable to expect me to pay for the speed i require. Surely!

In my opinion the NBN would never of passed any value for money test as it was always going to be gross overkill. It was like building a six lane highway to a country town where only 10% of the population owns a car.

Furthermore, the NBN is simply another failed policy to add to the dozens of failed policies by a grossly incompetent government, yet they and their supporters have the hide to accuse Tony Abbott of being incompetent.

SM,

I know how much you must have missed my updates...but here's one from Stephen Koukoulas from 2 hrs ago.

"The govt just borrowed $7 billion in a bond tender of a new 2026 bond. 4.375%"

http://thekouk.com/blog/government-debt-watch.html#.Ux1CoP226f0

(Since you're all so concerned about fiscal management)

P,

It is useful to remember the cost of financing and refinancing Labor's debt, and how much has been wasted.

Imagine having some of the hundred of billions of $ that Labor wasted to spend on health and education.

P,

Just for you:

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/3/13/technology/turning-conroys-nbn-legacy-dust

"The Coalition flagged the audit when it was in opposition, but just what benefit it will deliver is still open to conjecture. Is this just another attempt by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to validate the Coalition’s position on the NBN? Or is it an exercise in vilification as the audit attempts to lay bare Labor’s incompetency?

One suspects it’s a bit of both and, leaving motivations aside for a minute, the end result seems predetermined.

Senator Conroy won’t have to worry about NBN Co staffers speaking ill of him behind his back for too much longer -- in four months’ time the audit will no doubt have enough ammunition to dismantle Conroy’s NBN legacy, root and branch."

Its a familiar tail isn't it shadow minister, yet more labor incompetence unfolding.

The sad part is we just don't know how many skeletons they have left in the closet

Its sheer madness that such an incompetent mob can be voted in by incopitant supporters and we all have to suffer the consequences. Bring on political indemnity insurance i say.

Instead of most of us looking forward to a well earned retirement, we will most likely be fending off challenges and dodging bullets from those looking at ways of stealing our nest eggs simply because some people cant see beyond today.

It sucks!

Watch out for your super i say because it will be firmly in their sights as someone has to pay for this incompetence and it wont be anyone who failed to secure their futures.

rehctub,

"... we will most likely be fending off challenges and dodging bullets from those looking at ways of stealing our nest eggs simply because some people cant see beyond today.

It sucks!

Watch out for your super i say because it will be firmly in their sights as someone has to pay for this incompetence and it wont be anyone who failed to secure their futures."

Yeah, mate...I do feel sorry for you - constantly fussing and fidgeting, anguishing and lamenting that someone is going to take your stuff.

Not a great way to spend one's life.

Sad really.

NBN Who needs it? Who wants it?
I am told that if I want it here in Cairns it will cost me around $4000 to get connected and then the ongoing costs.

Yes Chris, the sad part is that i was of the understanding that under labors model, it still would have cost $4000 to connect, its just that someone else would have paid for it.

Quite obviously you don't need it, because otherwise you would pay the $4000.

Poirot, i took a conscious descision not to be a burden to the tax payer in my retirement, what i didnt expect was to be robbed to help others who either chose, or due to circumstances, went a different direction.

notwithstanding the fact that i am opposed to the robbin hood style system, I seriously doubt anyone who is self funded in their retirement should be expected to continue funding the retirement of others once you have ceased work.

I fear that unless we have serious tax reform, this is exactly what will happen, especially if labor get back in and continue their historical wasteful ways.

This is why i say, watch your super.

As for the NBN, surely anyone with half a brain could see how stupid this was from the outset, because in all seriousness has this been rolled out to every house, the majority of speed would have been used to play better games or download porno's faster.

people have to come to the realization that the days of a free lunch are over.

Abbott and co say the free lunch is over, no one else. A bottleneck at every intersection is that the way to go. All you can see is kids playing games. They don't use internet to play games. Very simplistic, and only half a system. People overseas can't understand why we pay for internet. They say we are paying to see adds.
It will take labor to correct the system. It's the coalition DNA that says everything has to be watered down. All they see is the Ginas

Rehcub, there has been a lot of talk on how government should get
access to super funds for infrastructure projects.
That sounds all very lovely, but I would be apoplectic if it was my
super fund that put money into motorways !
They have not been anything but a money sink.

The government invests for other than profit motive but a super fund
MUST invest for financial gain not social profit whatever that might be.

Turnbull has done just as expected with the NBN, and Australia will rue the failure to raise its competitiveness in the world. So much for the "infrastructure prime-minister". Murdoch, as always, provides the smoke-screen.

Regarding super, when the GST is raised by 5% the buying power of your super will be that amount less. There will be a lot less a proportion of the revenue take coming from income tax as the population ages, thanks mainly to short-sighted immigration policy. Self-funded retirees, what were you thinking, that Robin Hood would back off?

579 are you one of those who think you were going to get the speed that Labour promised ?

Competition has more to do with running costs than fast internet. Besides, if a business wants fast internet, no problem, just pay for it.

As for free internet, yes well, here we are starting to hemorrhage from financial preasure, yet we remain head and shoulders above other nations.

Just shows how successful the free internet has been for those countries, doesn't it.

Bazz, I'm a firm believer that nobody should have had access to their own super until they retired.

When compulsory super was introduced, every cent should have gone into nationally owned infrastructure and our returns upon retirement would have been based on contributions and provided via dividends on investments. We could have held on to the likes of the com bank and Telstra to name just a few.

The problem with super is that so many grubby investment houses get their hands on to it and risk billions every day, while raking millions out in profits.

Just think, we could have had trillions by now working for us, and our retirees could be on $40K a year. Instead, they are scaling through on what amounts to many as scraps, when considering the taxes they have paid and the sacrifices many have made.

Rehctub, the problem of allowing the government to use super for
infrastructure means you are betting on the government making good
investment. I am surprised you have such faith in public servants !

How about a billion in the Brisbane motorway or the Lane Cove tunnel ?
Hmmm ?

The government already treats superannuation as a milch cow, even taxing the deposits before any money is earned.

No government will remain in office where it proposes to get its grubby claws on the actual deposits.

What is very likely if a Labor/Greens government is ever returned and perish the thought, is capital gains tax on owner occupied homes.

That is government getting its hands on superannuation too, because many people consider their homes as part of their nest egg superannuation, to be sold to downsize in order to afford to live.

But there again, the previous Labor/Greens government proposed to force the elderly to sell the family home where they raised their children to fund their aged care. The Greens demand to go further and apply death taxes so that government eventually takes all.

There is a pressing need for government to return to the fundamentals that it was created to serve. Government itself has been a growth industry. It needs to return to the knitting.

Yes, I know Bazz, it was a cash of wishful thinking.

I see that the ACCC has recommended that cross subsidization of the regional networks by high charges on city networks has been condemned, and recommends that charges in the regional areas be directly subsidized by the government. This blows a huge hole in Labor tax on city users.

Just had a thought, (yes it does happen).
Most people in super funds put some of their super into fixed deposits.
Now if the banks get into trouble the Financial Stability Board could
take some or all of those super fund deposits as well as the deposits
you hold directly.

I just don't see that they could resist taking the super fund deposits
as it is money you would not expect to access for some time and it
would be so big that it could probably pay out all the banks debts on its own.

They could then wind the banks up and start with a new bank.
In case you think this is ridiculous Wayne Swan signed up for it and
they had a practise run in Cyprus last year.

they loot and plunder our pennies/by ever more taxes
yet the federal reserve they gave away to the bankers..admit..its our loan application[our endebitness..OUR PROMISE TO REPAY MORE DOLLARS THAn we borrowd[see ursury]..when our signature created the money..but not the intrest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CvRAqR2pAgw
Bank of England confirms conspiracy theory
that lending creates deposits, and NOT the other way around.
http://xrepublic.tv/node/8022

Govt just needs take back the fed
buy it back via right of seignorage[ie print [MINT]....10 coins to rePAY THE Outstanding debt]then recreate national banks to hold the peoples TREASURE/TRUSTING THE BANKERS HAS FAILED HUGELY

they devalue its worth/by inflating ever bigger the MONEY SUPPLY
BY ISSING MOre 'credit'[ie debt]
http://investmentwatchblog.com/since-the-1960s-wages-have-fallen-as-a-share-of-the-us-economy-from-51-percent-to-42-percent-today/

Monetary easing is paiNless..[untill they begin spending it]
http://rinf.com/alt-news/latest-news/fortune-100-companies-get-whopping-1-2-trillion-handouts/

and guess what?..THEY ARE TRading the worthless paper for anything real they can 'buy'..[ie buy while it still has worth..then we got it WHEN ITS WORTHLESS

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2014/03/19/stocks-barely-higher-ahead-fed-decision/DqFLlavkabWaoJSNbPUzJL/story.html

in the end COMES THE FINAl bubble
http://investmentwatchblog.com/signs-of-a-gold-supercycle-chart-this-kitco-news/
http://investmentwatchblog.com/the-validity-of-gold-silver-eric-radez-chicago-resource-expo/
lets face-it..we EFFECTIVELY ARe sheep
http://investmentwatchblog.com/how-corporations-are-masking-inflation-without-the-cpi-moving/
he graph of the DJIA is a classic example of fictional truth, a hoax.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/03/djia-hoax.html