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Broadband Reform: Getting it right
madepercy | May 11, 2009Australia could learn from Canada what a meaningful public consultation on broadband reform looks like.
The Commonwealth’s decision to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) provides an opportunity to fix the policy failures of the last two decades. Despite liberalising the telecommunications industry in the early 1990s, Australia fell well behind similar nations such as Canada in the deployment and take-up of broadband services by the early 2000s. Many believed that Telstra was responsible for the slow deployment and adoption of broadband, but recent statistics suggest otherwise. On many counts, Australia and Canada are on par for average prices and speeds, but at June last year, Australian households were still 12% behind their Canadian counterparts.
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Jobs Not Synonymous with Careers
Raz Chorev | May 11, 2009I can't promise that you won't have to start from scratch to define your job, but I can promise you it will be worth the effort.
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Forward with fairness for asylum seeker policy
Kerry Murphy | May 8, 2009A shift in the language reflects a more reasoned approach to the issue of asylum seekers.
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Anti-Discrimination
Hani Montan | May 6, 2009Education, and understanding history is essential to combatting racial discrimination
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Why the Financial System Matters
patrickcallioni | May 5, 2009The economy is like a game of musical chairs, and when the music stops, we don't want crooks and cheats to be the only ones who can find a seat.
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Jobless families need work
Jessica.Brown | May 5, 2009An economic downturn should be no excuse to lose the ground we have already won in reducing the number of jobless Australian families.
Despite Australia coming off the back of a remarkable economic boom and enjoying historically low unemployment rates, in late 2008 almost one in eight Australian children lived in a family where no parent worked. Unbelievably, this figure is actually a marked improvement: family joblessness reached its peak in the mid 1990s when more than one in six children lived in jobless households.
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The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library
David.Westgate | May 4, 2009This is one library where you won't be told to ssshhhhh!
Sometimes you hear about ideas, which whilst so simple are yet so smart that you think to yourself why hasn't someone done this before? The Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library is one such idea.
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Broadband Reform: Be Heard
sally.rose | May 4, 2009A major hindrance to the effectiveness of government-run public consultations is that most of us often have no idea just how much we actually care until it's too late.
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When I grow up I want to be…
Raz Chorev | May 4, 2009If you want to always have a job there's only one thing you'll need to learn, and that's how to keep learning.
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Dignity of Risk: The right to self-governance for people with mental illness
Craig.Parsons | May 2, 2009Dignity of risk is a term used to describe the right of individuals to choose to take some risk in engaging in life experiences. Craig Parsons says it is important that people with mental illnesses are not overprotected.
The dignity of risk, or the right to failure, is a value first championed by advocates for people with physical disabilities.
The dignity of risk, or the right to failure, is a value first championed by advocates for people with physical disabilities. It's an important concept for people living with a mental illness and one that mental health service providers should be mindful of.
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Regulator Should Butt Out on Fibre-Optic Broadband
Chris Berg | May 1, 2009It is unfortunate for consumers and businesses that Telstra’s potential $3 billion-plus investment in a large-scale fibre-optic network and the coming T3 sale have coincided.
The debate over the two have rarely been separated, but at stake are two very separate issues, with very separate stakeholders. Treasury officials are concerned with maximising the price of Telstra’s sale, but consumers and businesses should be concerned about the circumstances in which we allow infrastructure investment in this country.
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Broadband Internet – Getting the Framework Right
Chris Berg | May 1, 2009This blog was originally published at Online Opinion 4th January, 2007, and is re-published here with the kind permission of its author Chris Berg and the Institute of Public Affairs.
The United Nations last month released a report on broadband policies for developing nations. Unfortunately, its recommendations provide little more than advocacy of futile, centralised, national "plans" to increase Internet availability and use.
Similarly, policy makers across the Australia are formulating grand plans to resolve this county’s broadband crisis.
