Commitment now conditional
The Government has now made a budget surplus (people in the Northern Hemisphere may remember them) an aim rather than a commitment. This is sensible economically but may remain damaging politically.
Australia’s communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, who famously told Australian telcos they’d wear red undies on their heads if he told them to, has stepped into the auction process for new mobile spectrum. His intervention comes amid speculation that the troubled state of Vodafone would leave Telstra and Optus as …
Australia seems to be the odd one out in that returning a budget surplus has for quite some time been regarded as something of a political imperative. As it turns out, this resulted in us dodging the worst of the GFC.
Consequently, the current government (with an election approaching) is scrambling to cobble together a nice shiny budget surplus - no doubt to distract voters from the $250 billion public debt it has accumulated since it came into power.
Wait... So Vodafone will probably not bid at all, and they're worried Telstra and Optus bidding against each other might result in a lower price? What bloody planet is Conroy on?
And what price does Conroy think should be the reserve? His previous estimations haven't quite been that great, so I'm thinking the reserve is one of the following:
a) 20 cents
b) the exact amount Wayne has told him they're having trouble finding
c) around 10 trillion dollars