As I wrote in my post ALP how to vote, many technologically aware ALP voters are at the cross roads. They want the NBN but they don’t want the net filter. Today I completed my postal vote and numbered every box below the line in the senate. I put conroy last at 60.
How to vote below the line
There is no doubt that the ALP NBN is superior to anything the opposition has to offer. I’d also like a Tesla roadster in my driveway. It would reduce green house gases, improve my productivity. I’d also like free health care and education for everyone. However, who pays for it?
Just because one political party puts forward an option that is better than the other, doesn’t necessarily mean either are right. Colin Jacobs, whom I highly respect, posted on the EFA site today his assessment of the major party policies on telecommunications. I don’t disagree with him that the ALP policy is technically superior but i do disagree with the notion that a government needs to interfere with the free market at this level.
The more a government spends, the more freedom we lose. Not my quote but I like it because it means the more we let the government do things for us, the more dependent we become on them. I believe we need to change the power balance.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
There are some things that must be done by government, however, and not private enterprise. Among those is infrastructure. Telecommunications cabling is a natural monopoly: you wouldn’t want two, three or ten different suppliers of roads or electricity wiring, and you wouldn’t want multiple cable suppliers. It’d be too wasteful, and some people would get nothing.
Don’t you at the very least want a detailed cost benefit analysis?