What is “Nation Building”?
I can’t claim to understand the full frustration of rural broadband, but I’m not convinced that rural demand led to an inescapable NBN conclusion. The second child of the NBN family, Mark II, was conceived midair around 2007. I was about 21, and couldn’t grow a beard. The NBN was described as Nation Building. I... View Article
I can’t claim to understand the full frustration of rural broadband, but I’m not convinced that rural demand led to an inescapable NBN conclusion.
The second child of the NBN family, Mark II, was conceived midair around 2007. I was about 21, and couldn’t grow a beard. The NBN was described as Nation Building. I read this on the internet somewhere, and felt they were wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. I started NBNOptions.org, and debated a lot in Whirlpool Forums. I realised there are a lot of nerds there, who simply want high-spec things, and like me at the time, also chance to hold a girls hand without breaking out in hives.
Only last week I had an epiphany of sorts (the second definition if you Google it). Yet another solution for rural broadband that wouldn’t require NBN. I often find the best solutions, aren’t the first obvious idea that comes to mind. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” Van Gogh
I recently went on a weekend holiday through Ballarat, then Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Apollo Bay, then back to Geelong.
I had a nice Holden SV6 on hire, but although I had the power, I was still careful where I passed slow cars. I even slowed down to let faster cars pass me, like a true gentleman. So I got thinking, what if all these roads were better? What if it was easier and safer to get around Victoria? Would more people live in smaller towns and Cities? Geelong-Ballarat could be doubled (like Geelong-Colac), for example, and many more roads like it.
Now extensive road upgrades could have been done years ago, but unlike Telstra Privatisation, and selling my Ford Escort for $300, this is not a regretted past opportunity. We can still solve my first-world problem.
But this thought developed further. What if in 2007, the Government chose something inarguably Nation Building? What if they declared a vision for European-style population distribution, with up to 1-1.5M per rural city? And isn’t this what Government should be doing?
With this vision we would have got great internet from private industry. It would take leadership first and foremost, many smaller projects, better roads, and new competing private fibre networks between cities. Then there would be less pressure on the straining infrastucture of capital cities, better economies of scale in rural towns, and a good hipster cup of coffee within a 50km radius all over Australia.
What do you think? Should crocodile farmers be gifted with the revered macchiato?