Crikey readers continue to weigh in on the messy asylum seekers debate. Plus, the surprising nature of extending compulsory income management to all Australians on welfare.
Telstra
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Income management and refugees
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Pepsi joins the soft drink wars
Pepsi fights back in the soft drink marketing wars. Plus, an official Telstra reply alongside further Telstra complaints about bad service.
A case of Telstra’s service (or lack of it) being shanghaied
Crikey reader Jim Gobert tells of his frustration getting an answer — of any sort — from Telstra.
Ping! sends a shake-up message to nervous telcos
An application released last week for Apple’s iPhone, which gives users the ability to circumvent the carriers to send SMSs, will be making our large phone companies a little bit nervous,
Kohler: Rudd’s dividing and conquering, not leading, on ETS and Telstra
Kevin Rudd and his ministers seem to think they are all just playing a political computer game, in which the aim is to kill as many bad guys as possible. But broadband and emissions trading are both nation-changing issues.
Telstra’s shareholders had it coming
Telstra shareholders angry about their shares diving more than 4% after the announcement of the company’s split have only themselves to blame, says Peter Ryan after dusting off the company’s 1997 prospectus; Telstra itself outlined the risks of investing from day one.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Public servants get chakras aligned at taxpayer expense!
According to one tip-off today, a federal agency is the talk of the town after forking out $50,000 for a recent two night/three day sojourn at a luxury Southern Highlands resort for the entire staff.
Trading Post‘s last days a sign of things to come
The Trading Post will end its print run at the end of this month — the internet simply does classified ads better. But while advertising can now exist happily without any editorial content, can journalism survive without the ads?
Vale Trading Post
After 43 years of flogging used cars, slightly soiled couches and KISS pinball machines, the Trading Post is folding its print edition, following a 70% drop in ads over the last two years. RIP.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: A vision of the future, written by the Left. Part III
Would a transformed post-capitalist economic and social system abolish money, markets and property? Of course not. Will that future be anything like the communism envisaged in the early Marx, or Lenin’s utopian State and Revolution? Emphatically not. But what hopes are there?
The Australian’s civil war over Telstra’s amigos
Good to see some diversity in News Ltd’s national rag The Australian on the issue of telecommunications.
Davidson: Why Telstra has every right to feel peeved
The Rudd government’s decision to force Telstra to split its wholesale and retail arms is little more than a $43 billion protection racket designed to keep its competitors in business, says Kenneth Davidson.
Gittins: Rudd gets his microreform on with Telstra
With the split of Telstra, Kevin Rudd was finally prepared to do something that’s unpopular with a lot of people and not merely undertake ”reforms” that involve spending taxpayers’ money, applauds Ross Gittins.
Crikey Clarifier: What caused Sydney CBD’s Telstra outage
Thousands of businesses and homes in the northeast of Sydney’s CBD spent a day or more without telephones and the internet yesterday. What happened? And what can you do if it happens to you?
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Tabloid Crikey?
Crikey readers weigh in on Michael Danby’s criticisms of New Matilda and Crikey and Mark Day on Mark Day.
Kohler: Trujillo’s role in Telstra’s downfall
The story of how Telstra lost its network is one of hubris and bungling, of misreading the play in Australia by men from the US who thought they knew everything already. Shareholders should never forget this, says Alan Kohler.
Telstra decision is just good policy
There’s an element of politics in Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s decision to break Telstra up. But it’s also good policy that finally corrects the huge mistake Bob Hawke and Kim Beazley made.
Crikey Clarifier: What on earth is structural separation?
Til now, Telstra has exploited its monopoly as the buyer and seller of wholesale services to gouge the public and its struggling rivals. So the government’s forcing it to “structurally separate”. But what does this mean?
Telstra split: good or bad idea?
Online reaction to Telstra’s not-quite-forced “structural separation” is split. Telstra shareholders are angry. Everyone else is quietly jubilant — especially Telstra’s key competitors.
Kohler: Government bludgeons Telstra into submission
It didn’t have to be like this, says Alan Kohler. The government has laid down a condition for issuing spectrum: it won’t be sold to Telstra if it’s an integrated telco at the time. But legislation to ensure this happens is overkill.
Grattan: Good call, Conroy
The government’s decision to split Telstra was the right call to make, says Michelle Grattan — one that will see both parties reap the rewards.
Stutchbury: A long time coming
The government’s break-up of Telstra is a bold move, but one Howard or Hawke should have had the foresight to do years ago, says Michael Stutchbury.
Rudd rips off Telstra’s ma and pa shareholders
“Rudd wants the political kudos of appearing to promote more competition while remaining disinclined to paying tens of billions of dollars’ compensation to his targeted victims: Telstra shareholders”. Unconstitutional, says Peter Swan
Has Conroy bitten off more than he can chew?
The government has created three monster projects that it has prime responsibility for: the creation of the NBN, the dismantling of Telstra, and the re-regulation of a telecommunications market. Good luck.
