Despite being an Australian, I rarely follow the news there, so if someone closer to the action could confirm and clarify here: the notion was put forward to build fiber to the home across the country (extremely costly), it was passed by a government courageously (for supporting any long term benefit at immediate expense is tantamount to severing a near-term political limb), the government changed, and the new one is likely appointing the current chairman of what used to be the state-owned telecommunications provider (sold off by the incoming government in a prior reign) to 'fix' it.
Does it not appear then, on a macro scale, as if the government gave up its golden goose and wound up redistributing wealth to many private hands whilst reducing its actual capacity to get anything done or maintain a semblence of competitiveness with more successful but similar ventures elsewhere? (China, France and New Zealand come to mind)
After spending much time living in China, I can only conclude that two party democracies are essentially incompetent structures for long term infrastructure.
Perhaps my homeland could fix its NBN project with a pause to enforce transparency, issue public reports and a referendum. Of course, the government wouldn't do that ... the've just stolen the goose.
Yeah, it's the same story across the board really - not even many private hands, just a small handful of them.
Public infrastructure was never particularly invested in, even under Labour, but now that the Liberals are back in (I'm in Victoria, so double Liberal for me) it's "jobs for the boys", more roads, more private health insurance, etc, etc.
"Jobs for the boys" is a universal in Australian politics. Scan the resumé of anyone appointed to any board, committee, commission, agency etc etc and you will usually find clear connections to one of the majors.
Touché. One of my favourite scenes in Yes, Minister is when Sir Humphrey is having lunch with Sir Desmond, a banker he needs a favour from. He offers about a dozen random appointments in the scene -- Potato Board, Wine Marketing Committee etc. It's great.
Comments
Sad, really sad.
Despite being an Australian, I rarely follow the news there, so if someone closer to the action could confirm and clarify here: the notion was put forward to build fiber to the home across the country (extremely costly), it was passed by a government courageously (for supporting any long term benefit at immediate expense is tantamount to severing a near-term political limb), the government changed, and the new one is likely appointing the current chairman of what used to be the state-owned telecommunications provider (sold off by the incoming government in a prior reign) to 'fix' it.
Does it not appear then, on a macro scale, as if the government gave up its golden goose and wound up redistributing wealth to many private hands whilst reducing its actual capacity to get anything done or maintain a semblence of competitiveness with more successful but similar ventures elsewhere? (China, France and New Zealand come to mind)
After spending much time living in China, I can only conclude that two party democracies are essentially incompetent structures for long term infrastructure.
Perhaps my homeland could fix its NBN project with a pause to enforce transparency, issue public reports and a referendum. Of course, the government wouldn't do that ... the've just stolen the goose.
Yeah, it's the same story across the board really - not even many private hands, just a small handful of them.
Public infrastructure was never particularly invested in, even under Labour, but now that the Liberals are back in (I'm in Victoria, so double Liberal for me) it's "jobs for the boys", more roads, more private health insurance, etc, etc.
"Jobs for the boys" is a universal in Australian politics. Scan the resumé of anyone appointed to any board, committee, commission, agency etc etc and you will usually find clear connections to one of the majors.
I'm not sure why you needed to specify 'Australian' there.
Touché. One of my favourite scenes in Yes, Minister is when Sir Humphrey is having lunch with Sir Desmond, a banker he needs a favour from. He offers about a dozen random appointments in the scene -- Potato Board, Wine Marketing Committee etc. It's great.
I've just finish rewatching those series. I'd forgotten how much fun they were, and surprised at how little had gone out of date.
"In Sydney you think it is a comedy. In Canberra we see it as a documentary".