Turned to writing at 60, reckon that'll do for the next 30 years, then I'll become a musician - after that, who knows, maybe a wizard...
Human Rights Commission accepts complaint against Peter Dutton
The Australian Human Rights Commission has accepted a group legal action against Peter Dutton under Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, accusing him of discrimination and inciting racial hatred. Kim Wingerei with the update. The complaint by a group of 10...
Warmongers vs appeasers – the China media frenzy is the threat
Echoing the “reds under the beds” scare campaigns of the fifties, Nine Media mastheads want us to believe that war with China is imminent. Elsewhere, we are led to believe that China is a model citizen of the world and means no harm to anyone. Both positions belie the...
Stuart Robert – loyal Robodebt slayer
In his appearance at the Robodebt Royal Commission yesterday, Stuart Robert wants us to believe that not only was he the one that finally put a stop to the illegalities of income averaging, but that he knew it was wrong all along. However, the pesky Westminster system...
Ambulance chasers Slater & Gordon win a shiny takeover bid. What’s the scam?
Long-suffering shareholders of law firm Slater & Gordon may soon be out of their misery, with private equity vultures honing in for a buy-out. What’s the scam? The scam is private equity ain’t there for the justice Your Honour; there is profit to be had exploiting...
NBN Co admits to significant competition impacts
“NBN Co needs to be a monopoly wholesale provider for it to be economically viable”. This was the view espoused by Dr Ziggy Switkowski after being appointed chairman of NBN Co by the Coalition in 2013 to implement its ‘Faster, Affordable, Sooner” version of the NBN....
Surely the NBN Co writedown is nigh
The debate over the value of NBN Co is back in the headlines. This was triggered by NBN Co’s offer in its latest Special Access Undertaking variation to cap its ability to recover losses it has made on its investment in building and operating the network. These losses...
Sustainable Investment in Regional Broadband – submission to Productivity Commission
The Productivity Commission is inquiring into Australia’s Data and Digitial Dividend. I have made a submission on ‘Investing in Regional Digital Infrastructure’ and below are my introductory remarks to the commission’s public hearing held on 7 November 2022. The...
TPG and Optus fight just the latest drama over Australia’s bush telegraph
The ‘bush telegraph’ is the colloquial term for how information is informally transmitted around the rural and outback regions of Australia. It is also an appropriate description of how Australia’s telecommunications infrastructure has not kept up to date with the...
ACCC highlights that the Lib-Nat Coalition did not fix the NBN
This post was first published in the Australian Financial Review on 30 May 2020. Immediately after the election had been put behind us the ACCC released NBN Co’s proposed new Special Access Undertaking which, if accepted, would govern the prices of fixed...
$1.6b handout to Telstra’s Andy Penn to head off the Chinese
Why was Telstra slotted $1.6b by the Morrison government to buy Digicel, and how is it Telstra shares slumped by one-third during the bull market? It’s corporate welfare on steroids. Another bizarre intervention in what Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg like to...