@mathew42 - - Re: Return of a monopolist
"To compound the problem, the government intend to privatise NBNCo when the network build is completed returning us to the same monopolist controlled mess we are in now."
Precisely correct. I've not the time to argue the case here in much detail (and I've done so many times before), however the proposed sale of NBN Co. is a damn worry and I'm wondering if the Australian public has sufficient guts to kick up a real political stink about it before any sale.
For years, I've said that governments have committed treason against the Australian people when they sold off Telstra as a package deal complete with cableways and the cableway rights-of-way across the country. Not only did this necessitate the need for duplicate communications networks (Optus etc.) to be built (as Telstra continued to have the cable monopoly), but also the current buyback of the cableways from Telstra would never have been necessary had governments not been dishonest with the truth and light-fingered with our money. Despite a few sensible voices crying on deaf ears at the time, unfortunately the Oz public were conned by Oz Government Inc., they were fully duped by its glossy marketing.
Clearly, when Telstra was sold the obvious, sensible and equitable solution should have been for the cableways to come under the control and management of a revenue-neutral cableway authority that would have sold telcos wholesale access to the network. To keep such a cable authority honest, efficient, delivering services on time and financially transparent, it would be managed by a telco-government quango on a 49%-51% voting basis. Telco involvement would ensure the authority ran efficiently (thus minimise telco wholesale prices), and the government would ensure users and subscribers received a fair deal and that the network was managed properly and in the national interest.
It's anyone's guess what the sale of the cableway and its buyback will ultimately cost the Australian public (in tax revenues which should have been better spent elsewhere), and the additional cost to NBN Co's current and future subscribers by increases with increases to their subscriber's fees, all to pay for the fiasco.
I'd guess the loss of monies would easily amount to tens of billions of dollars. The 'defrauding' of the Australian public through deception and monetary sleight-of-hand by the politicians who were entrusted with the deregulation of Australia's telecommunications will, in all likelihood, go unpunished, as they've the power to dismiss any attempts to bring them to account.
To me, and I suspect to many other Australians too, the 'mismanagement' of the deregulation of Australia's telecommunications by successive Australian governments mounts to a misfeasance on such a grand scale that there's no other satisfactory description for it other than that of treason.
Unless there's an almighty outcry from the Australian public--which methinks is unlikely in the current political climate--nothing will happen, as those guilty of the 'fraud' not only have power but also they come from both sides of the political spectrum.
The best attack seems to be to publicise the debacle everywhere and demand a truthful and independent review/audit of all finances back to year dot.