Apologies for the silence, I had uni stuff to do.
This week, we heard the Opposition’s broadband plan and Julia Gillard, along with some of her Cabinet ministers, visited China.
The Opposition’s broadband plan is essentially to use what fibre-optic cable has been laid by the NBN, before using copper wire for the rest of it. I don’t like this idea. Not at all. It will be slower than the NBN and that is why it’s cheaper. This is one of those cases where applying the theory that ‘what is more expensive is of better quality’ applies. Yes, the Labor’s NBN plan is expensive and will be rolled out slower, but it will be of better quality, using fibre-optic cabling as opposed to the copper phone wire. Not only that, but from what I understand, the Liberals just expect Telstra to hand over the copper wiring – with little to no compensation upfront, which I find ridiculous.
Elsewhere, Julia Gillard visited China with some of her cabinet ministers and struck a deal with the Chinese to have yearly talks and to organise direct conversion between the Australian dollar and the Renminbi (RMB). This is excellent. Australia is becoming more linked with china. As China develops more rapidly, it needs economic and trade ties like this to stay afloat. It also shows that Australia is benefitting from Chinese investment. I my (slightly biased) opinion, this is a good thing.
On another note, this week Margaret Thatcher died this week. Despite the division of the British public on whether or not she was any good, I think she was a truly inspirational woman. I may not have agreed with many of her policies (I wasn’t born then, but I have read enough BBC On This Day to know the gist of it), but she was definitely a defining woman of politics in Britain and the world.
Quotes of the Week
“‘You give us your copper and then we will … as the NBN’s fibre nodes are connected to that copper, those premises will be connected to the NBN and you will be paid the contracted amount.” – Malcolm Turnbull on how he expects a deal with Telstra to work.
“It just gets worse and worse all the time and I think effectively the Government has kind of surrendered, and the problem with surrendering on boat people is that in the end it discredits the whole of our immigration program.” – Tony Abbott, being critical of the Government, after a boat arrival in Western Australia.
Faux Pas of the Week
Oops. Someone missed a boat of asylum seekers. FYI, it is not illegal to be an asylum seeker, it’s just thought that arriving on a boat is a bit of a problem. ABC Video of a witness talking about the boat here.
Tweet of the Week
Someone’s excited that The Drum (ABC News24 @ 6:30pm) talked about them…
Kara L 