Comments on: Telstra decision is just good policy http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/ now with extra source Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:03:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Richard Murphy http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37873 Richard Murphy Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:20:34 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37873 @Richard McGuire. I agree. Back when Information travelled on a Superhighway there were more than a few voices (including in the Oz' IT section) calling for the retention of this vital piece of infrastructure by the government. 'Structural separation' at that time meant the people owning the hardware while privates ran the services running on it. I distinctly remember the gloom that settled on me as Howard awarded the monopoly prize to the 800 lb Gorilla. We could have become even more ahead of the game than South Korea later became whilst dodging the worst effects of the dot.com bubble. Telstra simply hoarded its available bandwidth to force prices up across the board while gormandising on obscene margins (actual cost of a Sydney- Perth phone call at the time was 0.004c). But greed and the cringe mentality won the day and we have thus far spent some 15 years in the wilderness. And then there's all that engineering expertise the marketing men sold off in the outsourcing frenzy and.. and.. It's an opportunity missed forever, as Conroy and New Labor have no intention of getting us back to square one. @Richard McGuire. I agree. Back when Information travelled on a Superhighway there were more than a few voices (including in the Oz’ IT section) calling for the retention of this vital piece of infrastructure by the government. ‘Structural separation’ at that time meant the people owning the hardware while privates ran the services running on it. I distinctly remember the gloom that settled on me as Howard awarded the monopoly prize to the 800 lb Gorilla. We could have become even more ahead of the game than South Korea later became whilst dodging the worst effects of the dot.com bubble.
Telstra simply hoarded its available bandwidth to force prices up across the board while gormandising on obscene margins (actual cost of a Sydney- Perth phone call at the time was 0.004c). But greed and the cringe mentality won the day and we have thus far spent some 15 years in the wilderness. And then there’s all that engineering expertise the marketing men sold off in the outsourcing frenzy and.. and..
It’s an opportunity missed forever, as Conroy and New Labor have no intention of getting us back to square one.

]]> By: Spare US http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37853 Spare US Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:53:58 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37853 @Angus Sharpe. Nope! Never have and never would.....just able to see the facts clearly and the blinding obvious. The Government needs Telstra and its expertise to have any hope of getting the NBN up and running. [edited] - the Government will not take NO for an answer. Bullies get their way......at least initially, but the long arm of the public eventually catch up to them.... How many good and experienced network techs and engineers do you think this country has? And where are 99.99% of them right now? Yep! you guessed it....Telstra......NOT Optus, not any of the other minnows. But I guess The Government could import some Chinese tech workers...or Indians....or.......why not just use our own? Too obvious and simple? Guess so.... And I am not a Union person either....just thought I would save somebody a post... @Angus Sharpe. Nope! Never have and never would…..just able to see the facts clearly and the blinding obvious. The Government needs Telstra and its expertise to have any hope of getting the NBN up and running. [edited] - the Government will not take NO for an answer. Bullies get their way……at least initially, but the long arm of the public eventually catch up to them….

How many good and experienced network techs and engineers do you think this country has? And where are 99.99% of them right now? Yep! you guessed it….Telstra……NOT Optus, not any of the other minnows. But I guess The Government could import some Chinese tech workers…or Indians….or…….why not just use our own? Too obvious and simple? Guess so….

And I am not a Union person either….just thought I would save somebody a post…

]]> By: Angus Sharpe http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37850 Angus Sharpe Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:27:22 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37850 @Spare Us, yes I am for real. Thanks for asking. Do you work for Telstra? @Spare Us, yes I am for real. Thanks for asking. Do you work for Telstra?

]]> By: Spare US http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37841 Spare US Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:45:42 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37841 @Angus Sharpe. Are you for real? What a pity that The Con would not structurally separate himself from a half reasonable Government. Drops the total IQ at least 100 points. @Richard McGuire. Well said. Bernard has been in Canberra way too long. What Conroy should have done is offer to buy the PSTN from Telstra at market value, plus a premium for having taken all that money from Mums and Dads in the first place. The likes of Conroy simply don't get it they think that the great 'unwashed battlers' out there are just there to be farmed and milked to suit party political purposes and the commentariat think this is 'clever' policy and politics. They are in for a rude awakening one day soon, me thunks. I said it yesterday, please get the school boys out of this Nation building stuff and get some serious people involved Australians have had enough of self-serving Canberra politicians and they accolytes. I am beginning to be greatly concerned by the 'noises' coming from the new Telstra CEO and his 'merry' men - beginning to sound just like my 4 month old kitten. Kick Telstra in the teeth and get themm working, but at the end of the day THEY alone have the nouse, horse power and sheer grunt to get the NBN up and running. The nimblies looking for a quick quid simply do not. Time the Government realised this and got into serious talks with Telstra to do the NBN. If the Government succeeds with this 'reverse' take-over of a private company which is not brought to its knees by bloated debt etc etc and does NOT need Government gurantees to continue its business - banks come to mind here - then industry nationalisation is very much on the National Agenda of this Government. If this their true agenda, they need to go and soon..... @Angus Sharpe. Are you for real? What a pity that The Con would not structurally separate himself from a half reasonable Government. Drops the total IQ at least 100 points.

@Richard McGuire. Well said. Bernard has been in Canberra way too long. What Conroy should have done is offer to buy the PSTN from Telstra at market value, plus a premium for having taken all that money from Mums and Dads in the first place. The likes of Conroy simply don’t get it they think that the great ‘unwashed battlers’ out there are just there to be farmed and milked to suit party political purposes and the commentariat think this is ‘clever’ policy and politics. They are in for a rude awakening one day soon, me thunks.

I said it yesterday, please get the school boys out of this Nation building stuff and get some serious people involved Australians have had enough of self-serving Canberra politicians and they accolytes.

I am beginning to be greatly concerned by the ‘noises’ coming from the new Telstra CEO and his ‘merry’ men - beginning to sound just like my 4 month old kitten. Kick Telstra in the teeth and get themm working, but at the end of the day THEY alone have the nouse, horse power and sheer grunt to get the NBN up and running. The nimblies looking for a quick quid simply do not. Time the Government realised this and got into serious talks with Telstra to do the NBN.

If the Government succeeds with this ‘reverse’ take-over of a private company which is not brought to its knees by bloated debt etc etc and does NOT need Government gurantees to continue its business - banks come to mind here - then industry nationalisation is very much on the National Agenda of this Government. If this their true agenda, they need to go and soon…..

]]> By: Richard McGuire http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37822 Richard McGuire Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:58:41 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37822 Bernard is drawing a long bow in harking back to the Hawke/Keating/Beazley era as the origin of the current state of our telecommunications landscape......Its true origins lie in the ideological obsession of the Howard Government to privatize Telstra......For all the talk now about structural separation , it was in the power of the government to do whatever it wanted with Telstra when it owned and controlled it......I don't recall much discussion about structural separation when the sale of Telstra was underway......Perhaps I simply coudn't hear it above chatter about the share price and of course the roar of approval from most of the commentariat.....Oh there were some murmurings and some inquiry into looking after "the bush" but that about sums up the debate we had about the sell off, of part this nation's largest, and most critical piece of infrastructure......What of the future ?......The current Telstra leadership may well be pussycats compared to Sol and his amigos, at the end of the day however, it is their role, indeed duty ,to maximise Telstra's profits and returns to share holders......How they will achieve this while being restructured and press ganged into helping build the National Broadband Network is anybody's guess.....At the end of the day we'll still be likely to end up with a private monopoly owning and running the nations Telecommunications infrastructure.....What a pity the government could not go a step further and take back conrol of the network....Forty three billion dollars surley would have gone a long way to achieving that goal. Bernard is drawing a long bow in harking back to the Hawke/Keating/Beazley era as the origin of the current state of our telecommunications landscape……Its true origins lie in the ideological obsession of the Howard Government to privatize Telstra……For all the talk now about structural separation , it was in the power of the government to do whatever it wanted with Telstra when it owned and controlled it……I don’t recall much discussion about structural separation when the sale of Telstra was underway……Perhaps I simply coudn’t hear it above chatter about the share price and of course the roar of approval from most of the commentariat…..Oh there were some murmurings and some inquiry into looking after “the bush” but that about sums up the debate we had about the sell off, of part this nation’s largest, and most critical piece of infrastructure……What of the future ?……The current Telstra leadership may well be pussycats compared to Sol and his amigos, at the end of the day however, it is their role, indeed duty ,to maximise Telstra’s profits and returns to share holders……How they will achieve this while being restructured and press ganged into helping build the National Broadband Network is anybody’s guess…..At the end of the day we’ll still be likely to end up with a private monopoly owning and running the nations Telecommunications infrastructure…..What a pity the government could not go a step further and take back conrol of the network….Forty three billion dollars surley would have gone a long way to achieving that goal.

]]> By: Michael James http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37810 Michael James Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:56:43 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37810 Angus (1.36pm), yes I am sure your sentiments will be echoed by a lot of people originally dubious about Conroy. One has to say that his media performances have also been pretty good. This is a significant event for the whole tone of the Rudd government--even if there is a lot of political calculation built into it--because it is actual bold action on a very important issue with a potentially excellent outcome. By comparison Nick Minchin looked and sounded like a dinosaur in his responses; and it is notable that Helen Coonan is not to the fore anywhere, possibly because she is secretly punching the air on and congratulating Conroy on doing what she would have dearly liked to have done herself when the responsible minister. And good article Bernard Keane. I was not in Australia at that time so it is interesting to hear about that conflict. It confirms my longstanding opinion about Beasley's claim on the leadership, notwithstanding his good bloke credentials. Angus (1.36pm), yes I am sure your sentiments will be echoed by a lot of people originally dubious about Conroy. One has to say that his media performances have also been pretty good. This is a significant event for the whole tone of the Rudd government — even if there is a lot of political calculation built into it — because it is actual bold action on a very important issue with a potentially excellent outcome. By comparison Nick Minchin looked and sounded like a dinosaur in his responses; and it is notable that Helen Coonan is not to the fore anywhere, possibly because she is secretly punching the air on and congratulating Conroy on doing what she would have dearly liked to have done herself when the responsible minister.
And good article Bernard Keane. I was not in Australia at that time so it is interesting to hear about that conflict. It confirms my longstanding opinion about Beasley’s claim on the leadership, notwithstanding his good bloke credentials.

]]> By: Angus Sharpe http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37794 Angus Sharpe Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:36:46 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/16/telstra-out-of-bad-policy-by-greed/#comment-37794 Incidentally, Stephen Conroy had the line of the day yesterday when he noted that Ergas had recently “structurally separated from his own company.” I'm beginning to like Stephen Conroy in spite of his stupid net nanny filter. Does that make me a bad person? Incidentally, Stephen Conroy had the line of the day yesterday when he noted that Ergas had recently “structurally separated from his own company.”

I’m beginning to like Stephen Conroy in spite of his stupid net nanny filter. Does that make me a bad person?

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