Aidan,

If your idea of suggesting just about the cheapest solution from the least reliable supplier, then no it doesn't work.

I get 3MB/s or 25Mb/s all the time and can stream 3x 1080p Netflix videos simultaneously whilst my son plays interactive games at 7 pm which is the peak period, as my supplier is not buying limited bandwidth as does NBN retailers. So I get better than the $119 package that iinet offers on NBN. 2-5Mb/s would not meet my needs at all.

FTTN saves about $30bn over FTTH and delivers the same reliability and nearly the same speed. Future upgrades as required can take complete the FTTH by installing fibre from the node to the home as and when needed over the next decade or two at roughly the same cost.

Dear Rehctub,

I have no problems with the bush.

If the whole idea was to give them access to the internet, then why not do just that? Why punish the rest of us and take away our phones?

I believe that Juliar's objective was ideological and deliberate to proliferate the internet and increase people's dependence on digital technology so that government can control us better. She certainly considered analogue lines dangerous for government because they are harder to monitor.

Y, to connect just 4 properties where I have land in the bush will take 15 to 20 km of cables. that is not value for money, I'm sorry.

Dear Rehctub,

It is my understanding that people in the bush do get something from the NBN, this way or the other - perhaps satellite, whatever. They get it anyway, but why should the rest of us suffer who were always happy with the connection that we already have?

Y, its call UNACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENTS gambling with OUR taxes.

Too many policies these days are actually 'thinking out loud' where they act now then think about it. The CSG retention issue is another such case.

The bottom line is that while ever we choose our politicians from the scrap heap, (those who don't make the cut in the corporate world) we are going to continue seeing our taxes wasted, because if nothing else the past ten years have proven that regardless of the level of incompetence, they are not only unaccountable, but they get rewarded in the process with 'set for life' pensions.

It's a slippery slop we are on and I have no doubt we have past the point of no return as I just can't see how we will ever redress our out of control cost of living, or repay our debt.

Remember, we have not yet felt the true impact of loosing our car industry. That, along with the tax which hunt on multi nationals has the potential to plunge us even deeper into no return land