NBN rollout

I've taken a fascination with the NBN since it was a clear winner for the government.  Reading a lot about it on whirlpool forums and in the paper, and since Internode support it's obviously the real-deal good thing and not some funny fancy promise that they used to win votes...

So I decided to look at the rollout maps

There was an inciteful headline in the paper stating that city dwellers will have to bear the costs of the NBN for rural communities - basically saying they will start the infrastructure rollout in the regional areas first.  Which of course I think is the right thing to do - why should they start it in the cities when we already have high speed internet?  And the poor country folk have dialup and crappy ADSL?  I think it will be great for communication as well as education for kids in the country areas - information will be available at fingertips for homes far from access from the services we take for granted - libraries, bookstores, community services.  Most of the comments after the article said the same thing - they don't mind if they do the regional areas first.  After all, we already have nice broadband here in the city.  What would people want with more speed?

What do I think of the election and the eventual outcome?

Politicians these days are not inspiring.  The election held a couple of weekends ago just goes to show how uninspiring the whole thing can be.

I will make no secret of the fact that I voted Greens this last election.  Now with the Greens receiving a 3.7% national swing during the last election as well as winning a Lower House seat, and picking up extra senate seats giving them the balance of power in the Senate (they will have a senator in each state), they are getting a lot of attention (The Coalition only got a 1.9% national swing).

The media story stating that people voted Greens as a protest against voting Labor or Liberal is true in my respect.  I am one of the tertiary educated, high-income earners who should be voting Liberal, but usually votes Labor, but now sick of them both is now voting Greens.

But did you look at their policies?  People ask me.  Yes I did.  I went to their website, and looked at the things that they believe and want to introduce.  Now being a party not in power, those policies would probably be picked to pieces, but they have been glossed over mostly.  However there are a lot of Labor type similarities.  Things which interest me mostly are health, education and climate.

There is a very socialist approach to their health policies.  Abolish the private health insurance rebate, boost up the public health system.  Salaried GPs, more incentives for specialists and GPs to bulk bill so all Australians have access to healthcare.

Climate and the environment - obviously being the Greens they are for carbon tax, stopping coal mining and our dependency on non renewable energy sources, ecosustainable fishing blah blah.  Perhaps a bit unfair on my part, but I am pro-Carbon tax.  After all, I can afford it, and I did put in solar panels to try to reduce my bills a bit as well as my carbon footprint.  I wish that all Australians could have solar panels or afford them. And they support feed-in tariffs - I hope it's gross tariffs for everyone!  If that was the case I'd love to buy property and put solar panels on them everywhere.

Education - more public schools funding, HECS free Tertiary education... it all sounds very socialist doesn't it?  So where does all this money come from?

At heart, maybe I am a socialist.  I don't try to minimize my tax excessively, I think if I can afford it I should pay for it.  Is that such a bad thing?  My colleagues all think so.  They say why do you want all your hard earned money to go to tax?  But was my money that hard to earn?  Do I have back breaking labour?  I think I have quite a good life, I love my job and all prospects of it, and I don't work that hard really.  I do most of my work in the public system, and my private fees are not excessive (though I don't no gap and I really should if I was as socialist as they say).

A friend of mine donkey voted, saying that it was his protest against the 2 governments, because he thinks they're all idiots.  And that's his right, he has a right NOT to vote (since it is compulsory to vote but he just doesn't want to).  Another friend of mine voted Nationals.  People who don't make a vote in my opinion should not complain about who leads the country because they had their opportunity to say something but they chose not to.  Look at me, I exercise my vote and look what happened - my safe Labor seat has now turned marginal.  And for someone like me it doesn't really matter who gets into power, it won't affect me that much.  I will still send my kids to school, I will still work and get paid and pay my tax, and I will still take out private health care even though it costs me heaps.