There are two glaring omissions thus far from the headlines in regard to policy strength and weakness on both sides of the current election campaign. One is the proposed Internet Filter, which has thankfully been “put on ice”, for a while, I just fear that it will be warmed up should Labor be successful in winning a second term. It is interesting that although the Libs have previously quietly opposed it, for that is their job – to oppose things, they haven’t made it a highlight issue of criticism in the campaign despite the overwhelming opposition to the filter in the industry and among the public. Is this because the Christian element behind the Libs is in favour of the filter? I will leave that unanswered, mainly because I can only speculate.

The second issue is a similar one in that it is being left someone dormant as a point of debate. (Today, Fri 30 July, Senator Conroy and the Prime Minister Julia Gillard will place the NBN on the election agenda by highlighting the 93% of Australia that will be covered by the network) This is Now what of the Libs proposal to can the National Broadband Network (NBN). Whilst it has been made clear that there is a dichotomy between the Lib’s accusations of reckless spending, and Labor’s rebuttal of a lack of commitment to infrastructure development and maintenance, I believe the proposal to can the NBN should be one of the top priority criticisms of the Lib’s pledges to the people. Here is why:

We have a National Broadband Network currently being rolled out in Australia that will provide 100 Megabits per second to 90% of Australians. This is up to 100 times the current speed through which, at least in regional areas, businesses are expected to transact and the community are expected to interact with information and services. The Coalition would pull this project in favour of giving corporates the responsibility to provide this high capacity broadband infrastructure. This places equity of connectivity at the mercy of supply and demand economics as the corporates need to build business cases to invest in infrastructure in regional areas. Where there is little demand, there will be little supply.

It might seem obvious, but this is a vitalpeice of infrastructure as important as electricity, water, gas. It might also seem obvious that we need it, but when it comes to the civil works required to put it into place, will you welcome it? Often we embrace what is good for us but only when it comes without inconvenience, a project of this scale, bringing fibre connectvity to the home requires significant works, but it is a short term pain for a long term gain.

Regardless of how you look at our nation, we are in a competitive environment. For our country to be sustainable and to prosper we need to have a competitive economy, a robust social system, and a healthy environment. Competitive advantage comes to the first movers and the opportunities the NBN brings that enhance competitive advantage both on an individual business level and a regional sustainability level means a compund case for wanting to be at the nearer end of the eight year roll-out queue.

Why is the NBN so important to our Nation’s growth?

For the economy, the NBN will facilitate a paradigm shift in the way business is conducted. There will be businesses not yet existing that can only exist with high capacity broadband providing services and products we don’t yet know about. There will be methods of transactions that will shorten supply chains, increase market reach, digitalise products, allow greater communication with customers. The hierarchical and inefficient corporate structure as we know it today, will give way to network structures where information is alive and flows through the veins of the business facilitating more agile organisations responding more rapidly to the stimuli of the business environment. Geography is no longer a barrier to accessing and retaining the highest quality talent. Enhanced opportunities for innovation, increased productivity, new product development, increased research capabilities, accelerated learning and diffusion of discovery throughout industry and the wider economy increases the total economic pie and everyone gets a larger share.

Where this scenario can occur in Australia on an International scale makes our country far more attractive to do business with and increases our own competitive advantage on the world stage. The NBN will make this happen.

For the community, the NBN will enable the more efficient delivery of vital services, and more importantly, increase access and reduce inequity of access to vital services and entertainment. The improvement in IP video can allow the remote delivery of practice health care, more advanced eHealth information systems will increase the efficiency in accessing health services and reducing their costs for our ageing population. Barriers to education, both geographic and financial, could be reduced as more learning delivery can be done online, using video and other innovative applications into the education experience to increase participation. Government service delivery will also provide benefits to the community in access, reduction of wasted time in processing queues, increased provision of information and customer service. Again geographic barriers will be reduced increasing equity and increasing the civic responsibility of the Government. Lastly, an entertainment revolution in content quantity and availability, reduced costs decreasing the have/have not divide when it comes to media access.

When this can occur, the community decreases their service transaction time and as a result can expect a reduction in the cost of accessing vital services increasing social well being.

For the environment, the ability to work form home reduces the need to drive polluting vehicles, the ability to make business transactions via eCommerce also reduces the carbon footprint of that business, increased digitalisation of products and services will reduce the amount of traditional transport logistics required. High capacity broadband technology applied to the public transport system can increase its efficiency through dynamic route planning, and passenger management reducing the number of polluting vehicles on the roads and rails. Increased broadband capacity translated into technological advancement and innovation applied to research and development in clean energy can lead to reduced emissions and to a cleaner planet.

This is a snippet of the potential contribution of the NBN to our environment, which in turns increases the amenity of our nation and the health of its citizens.

Allowing the provision of this vital infrastructure to the will of the board rooms of the corporate carriers, when the roll out is already on the way, to me seems to place it at a risk too great to bear in regard to quality, equity and coverage. The roll out has begun, may it roll on for the country.