National Broadband Network Australia

Successful businessman Graeme Wood said yesterday that the NBN would be a "$43 million hi-tech babysitter." By that, I think he means we will all be spending more time in front of a TV screen. Founder of wotif.com, he questioned the value of pouring taxpayer funds into a system that most households would mainly use to download games and movies. "If all you're doing is speeding up the rate at which we entertain ourselves, can you justify that from a public expenditure point of view?" he told the Australian. "Is there any value to society in just delivering entertainment faster? He added that a public debate hasn't happened, they don't know the true end cost and the benefits to society are minimal. I see his point.

A few weeks ago when Independent MP Tony Windsor had us hanging by a thread, he said it was the NBN that finally clinched his decision to go with Labor. We later found out that he couldn't even turn a computer on, let alone use one. So basically we have a hung parliament because a man made a major decision on something he knows absolutely nothing about.

Tony Abbott will continue to push its more modest broadband plan, although it didn't go down well with voters at the election. Andrew Robb said they didn't do a good enough job of selling it, they put it out too late and no one understands it anyway. "We would have had in remote Australia a full satellite service in 30 months" he said.

Despite his criticism of the NBN, Graeme Wood criticized Tony Abbot's plan to "demolish" the NBN. He made the point that Malcolm Turnbull had made most of his fortune from the dot com revolution. BTW his wotif.com business is now worth $43 billion. He said broadband would be a boom to business, hospitals and education but the government needed a policy to encourage more positive returns to society. "Which part of the $42 million investment is going to provide hi-tech babysitting?" he said "What are the costs to society if people spend an extra two hours a day in front of a screen instead of walking the dog or talking to their neighbour?"

Then he had a shot at the big miners. He said Australia could not continue its reliance on being "a quarry" for miners and needed to come up with new ideas. He accused the government of kowtowing to BHP Billiton boss Marius Kloppers over the ETS and the mining tax. "So who's running the joint, is it the bloody government or Koppers?" he asked.

This proposed broadband plan is causing a lot of angst and because most of us don't understand it, we have to rely on the experts to make the right decision for us. Let's hope they do. I like the comment made by Vocus Communications Chief Executive James Spenceley last month - he likened NBN to "giving everyone a Farrari" when they might be content with a Commodore.