My logical perspective

Okay.  Declaration first.  I'm a Telstra shareholder.  But this isn't about Telstra.  It's about investing for the future. 

Australia stands to benefit from a fast broadband network.  We are a country that sells mostly primary produce but produces little else.  We invent some amazing things but are often so far from a potential market the ideas get sold off to another country or researchers move to get funding.  We are remote from the rest of the world so going to markets around the globe to advertise a product or garner investment in development is very expensive.  Our farmers have relied on radio reports for long range weather forecasts to make educated guesses when to plant.  Students rely on books in a library.  Lots of business in country is done face to face so we burn lots of fossil fuels.

What if we could advertise on the World Wide Web and reach several billion prospective customers at the touch of a button, from the comfort of the best country on the planet, access soil and weather reports instantly, communicate with other researchers around the world via video from our labs or homes, conduct management meetings between cities face to face via video conference, the list goes on.

A fast, stable internet will open Australian businesses up to the world, provide education research tools to researchers and school kids, bring more technology to our farmers to better judge when to plant or harvest and to miners where to drill. 

Yes, the cost to implement the NBN will be more than other countries.  Why?  Because we have 20million people spread across 7.6 million square kms.  There are wide open spaces between towns and farms.  Today, a report was published coparing the cost of the NBN to the network in Korea.  Not a fair comparison.  Korea is 73 million people spread over 173,000 square kms.  An apples for apples comparison might be Russia or Canada having a similar population density.  Not the USA as it has a population density 15 times Australia's.

We built the Sydney Harbour Bridge to take 8 lanes of traffic and two lines of trains when there were almost no cars.  The NBN is a similar investment in our future.  It's great to see some politicians do something for the long term good of the nation rather than short term to get re-elected.  It's becoming tedious to see the Federal Opposition opposing things for the sake of opposing things.  The Coalition spent 11 years in government letting our infrastructure run down.  The present government is building new infrastructure and investing in the future.  Maybe I'll write about levies another time.

Get on board Australia!