Quote:
Originally Posted by Kunama
I love fast internet .......... BUT ........... seriously, we have pensioners living on a pittance each week buying chicken necks instead of breast fillets, we have homeless starving in the streets, hospitals with enormous waiting lists, medical researchers trying to find funding for important work and yet we quibble over whether we should have an optical fibre or a copper wire leading up to every house in Australia.
What the hell has happened to our priorities ?
My 2 cents .....
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Hi Matt,
Thanks for the post and I can answer that for you.
In 2012-13, social security and welfare, health, public order and safety and
housing and community amenities account for just over $203 billion of federal
spending, equivalent to 54% of the total budget.
It is wonderful to live in a country that can pay for these things and it would be even
more wonderful if we could spread the net further.
However, to do that, we need revenue and we do that as a nation by producing
goods, commodities and services.
Spending on communications and transport infrastructure has a multiplier effect
in that enables individuals and businesses to generate even more income that can
be used not only to pay for that infrastructure but to provide a social safety net.
To put that into some perspective, in 2012 $5 billion was spent on transport and
communications infrastructure in the federal budget, just over 1%.
What's more the expenditure on the NBN was a loan which was to be re-paid by
the profits it was to make.
Many confuse the NBN concept as being "fast internet at home". It is that and
a lot more. It is the overhaul of the entire nations communications infrastructure.
As an individual running a business that exports, I proud to be able to say I am
amongst those who have brought in more foreign revenue than I have consumed
personally myself by way of overseas purchases. I am also proud of the fact that
the taxation revenue from that has made a contribution to the country's social safety net.
Plus we employ Australian workers who in turn pay tax that also play their
small part in contributing to social welfare.
But I don't know of a way I can just pull money out of thin air.

Like most Australian businesses we need infrastructure such as viable
communications systems to bring that about.
Businesses borrow and invest in themselves all of the time in order to grow.
Now and then, when it comes to infrastructure such as communications
and transport, governments have a vital role to play.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au