CW You rock!

I've never seen it so well put. Is this being published somewhere or what? If not, get on the back of the age; as you've said what many should hear.

Agreed, Alex. But CW has previously expressed these views time and time again. Regrettably, some readers considered it inappropriate for politics to be discussed in what they thought was a blog focussed exclusively on computing. But at last for all sorts of reasons the scales have been removed from the eyes of electors: aren't the long overdue winds of change refreshing?

When you write with passion, Charles, the words glow. Glad you're back on the case.

(To the theme of Love and Marriage)
Bread and Circus's
Bread and Circus's
Go together like ACCC and Telstra
...

We have the government we deserve, why are people so surprised at anything they do.

(OOhhhh I was told spreading fertiliser was good for growth but the government lied about all this S**T around here)

Isn't it statistically impossible for all of us to have the government we deserve? You have to vote for them, don't you, to deserve them? Or is this like original sin? Or karma from a past life? Even if you didn't vote for them, it's still your fault!

Thanks a lot, Luke.

CW
We have the government we collectively deserve.

I was one of the three people in Oz who voted for the democrats. Unfortunately us fringe dwellers (as opposed to a minority group) who can see whats going on only account for about 15%-20% of the vote.

As for the Fed Gov, ACCC and Telstra: - If I had a wish it would be Telstra was the retail arm and loosing money like a sieve. Fed Gov owned and ran the equipment and ACCC kept their three ideals: Company Fairness, Competition Fairness and Customer Fairness.

Ablaze -
I must say I am disappointed to hear that readers think computing journalism shouldn’t delve into the realm of politics where suitable. Especially when the outcome of politics can effect our computing lives.

-Net Censorship
-R18+ Ratings for games
-Regulation of wireless/cellular protocols

All issues that have to involve political commentary for the technology columnist to cover them in full.

Grow up people!

Telstra might not be very nice at all - they're often perceived by lots of people to be bullying and manipulative by turns it would seem. Their American top executives might not go down well at all this country. Their customer service may well be poor and their prices expensive. That's all largely taken for granted by most readers of this blog, I guess. Fair enough.

But CW's political bias once again lurches into another of his anti-John Howard diatribes. What a pity. Instead he might have written a much more informative piece by looking a little more dispassionately at the interests and agendas of all of the main players involved in this soap opera. There would still have been room for CW's opinions, and they would have been much more persuasive if they had been reasoned and balanced rather than cliched invective masquerading beneath the occasional humourous turn of phrase.

Does anybody of a different political persuasion to CW's - or at least one that's a little more restrained - have any insights and perspectives to inform Bleeding Edge's readers in a more meaningful manner about the current broadband kerfuffle? If you are that someone, or know where he or she is to be found in the media, I for one would be grateful for your response.

As per the original 7:30 Report screening the videos are priceless!

Telstra jibbing on Australian consumers: ACCC - m4v | wmv

And if you are a RSS Junkie M4V RSS Feed | WMF RSS Feed

Declaring it invective and biased is so easy, Jame. It's far harder to argue against the facts. Clever of you not to even attempt to do so.

Does anyone have any insights or perspective to challenge my reasoning? How about you, Jame?

Lateline Business: National broadband network needed: IBM CEO

ALI MOORE: Let's start with the issue of the moment in this country and one that you're pretty well placed to comment on. How badly off are Australians when it comes to broadband Internet access?

GLEN BOREHAM: Well Ali, you look at the statistics available. The OECD rate us 17th of developed countries. The World Economic Forum are rating us 25th. Clearly, we are not where we need to be.

ALI MOORE: Now what about market clarity, that new survey that came out this week which ranked us eighth?

GLEN BOREHAM: Yeah look, there's lots of different statistics available, but I think for a country of our size, for a country that has an innovation agenda, we're not where we need to be. And the fear that I have is that when you look at the debate on infrastructure, you know, water is really obvious. If we can't water our gardens, we know there is a water problem. Transport infrastructure, if you are stuck in traffic, you know that there's an issue there. They're topical. But IT infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure has been less so. And as an economy we are missing opportunities. This is about health care, better health care in regional Australia. It's about education standards to our children and it's about small and medium business throughout our country having access to new markets.

ALI MOORE: Well where we need to be is it fibre-to-the-node, which is what all of the debate is about in this country at the moment? Is that the right technology?

GLEN BOREHAM: I think we've got to look at you know the whole spectrum of technology. Fibre-to-the-node is one and the debate that's going on with Telstra and the Government around that is a healthy debate. I think we've got to look at fibre-to-the-house. But we are competing in the Asia Pacific region. Now Australia, as part of that Asia Pacific region, we're competing with countries who are just leapfrogging.

ALI MOORE: So when you look at the debate - and we're getting this tit for tat between the regulator and Telstra - we're getting a lot of mud slinging, but not a lot of progress. What does the industry think of it all?

GLEN BOREHAM: We are calling for action. I mean this is inhibiting the growth of our economy. It is inhibiting our prosperity and again we need action and we need it urgently.