longweekend58 wrote on Nov 18^th, 2010 at 3:58pm:



The fact is that in the current lower house, Turnbull could have persuaded enough cross benchers to support his bill, but FAILED.

No different from Labor's failure to convince the independent senators over the ETS, for example.

longweekend58 wrote on Nov 18^th, 2010 at 7:02pm:





YES, they DID







Show me THOSE costings and "business plans" ?

The numbers are undeniable longweekend.

Turnbull could have garnered the numbers, and failed.

Time for a NBN reality check.





JULIA Gillard has escaped being ordered by the House of Representatives to table the business case into the National Broadband Network.

Four independent MPs yesterday sided with the opposition to back a resolution demanding the document's release and while Labor lost the ballot 74 votes to 71, parliamentary rules require an absolute majority of 76 votes for the order to be effective.

The vote came as the Prime Minister continued to reject opposition demands for greater scrutiny of the project, including allowing the Productivity Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis.

Ms Gillard said she would release the business case for the project next month, after the parliament is asked to vote on a bill to allow the structural separation of Telstra -- a significant step along the road to the NBN.

She said cabinet had yet to consider the document, which contained commercially sensitive information.



In parliament, Tony Abbott said it was unacceptable that the government expected parliament to vote on legislation related to the creation of the NBN without giving MPs access to the business case.

"Shame on this weak and divided and cowardly government, which will not give the people the evidence on which its policy is based," Mr Abbott said.

"Decisions should not be made until we have the evidence before us. Let the parliament make the most informed choice that it can."

But Ms Gillard, who had attacked the call for a cost-benefit analysis as a delaying tactic, said the opposition had no interest in the business plan or any other information about the NBN.

Earlier, a private member's bill put forward by opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull that would have forced the government to conduct a cost-benefit analysis was defeated 73 votes to 72.

In the Senate, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said three further pieces of legislation would need to pass through parliament to deliver the project.

News of additional legislation came as the Coalition, the Greens and independent Nick Xenophon escalated their push for transparency over the NBN in the Senate by using their numbers to force the government to table previously confidential information about the project.

The Senate ordered Senator Conroy to release the "Red Book" brief provided to the incoming government by the Department of Communications, including previously blacked-out sections.

And Liberal senator Simon Birmingham announced that the Coalition would reintroduce Mr Turnbull's beaten bill to the Senate next week.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/close-call-on-issue-of-nbn-cost...

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Nov 19^th, 2010 at 9:33am:


No surprises that you fail to appreciate the crux of the issue - i.e. failure of market forces to deliver, in the first instance, in the context of a small population distributed across a large land mass!

Some of us foreshadowed this predictable outcome, when your fellow right whingers first decided to sell off Telstra, in their infinite pro-privatisation dogmatism.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Nov 19^th, 2010 at 9:41am:


LOL...apparently you're yet to admit that: GFC's are what inevitably happen, when self-serving capitalists run out of other people's money to feed their ponzi schemes!

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Nov 19^th, 2010 at 9:51am:


LOL...no surprises that you cannot compute human concepts such as altruism, equity, empathy, co-operation and community - since they don't boil down to a single $$$ figure...

All this crap sprouting  from an Opposition (and their  supporters) that wouldn't know the National Interest if it fell over it."