TheRealDave says:

09:49am | 01/12/10

Dear God, yes even as a devout atheist I have to just throw my hands up sometimes at supposedly intelligent peoples gross stupidity.

1. Firstly, People who own iPads should never ever be allowed to comment on IT matters. Ever. You’ve already demonstrated your complete lack of IT knowledge by buying a useless piece of crap at a premium inflated price.

2. Where are the cables going to go? Are you friggin serious? I put that right up there with other gross stupidity like ‘Wireless is better’ and ‘Fiber is outdated’ and ‘it will cost THOUSANDS to re-wire your house’ lines of gross stupidity. 5 minutes of reading ANYTHING about the NBN, well, anything by people who have an actual clue so that counts out The Australian and most other News Limited press, would have told you were the freaking cables are going to go. Jeabus. I mean really. See point 1 about iPad owners.

I don't really care that much about Julia's comments on the NBN here. Its more the comments from the readers - as is so often the case for me. Just like "TheRealDave" here.

Onya RealDave, you made me smile this morning! :)

Sylvestor

The Federal Opposition says the collapse of a proposed joint venture to build the National Broadband Network in Tasmania shows the overall project is a shambles.

The Government planned to build the network with Tasmanian electricity company Aurora Energy.

But a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says both parties have agreed the Government will use Aurora as a contractor instead.

I guess one just has to wonder why Aurora Energy has pulled out of the business deal that has been so widely touted as the next best thing for Australia?

Senator Conroy?

Sylvestor

Mr Quigley will present a business plan to the NBN company board this Friday and the Government will get a look at the figures next week.

It is not yet known when the Government will make the business plan public.

The Government has however confirmed it has had the Governor-General sign a decree exempting the NBN from scrutiny by parliament's Public Works Committee.

So the primary concern is "the information will be taken out of context" - sounds to me like it might come as a bit of a shock to people.

Why the secrecy?

At present it is taxpayer money funding this project.

Surely fiscal transparency is nothing to fear? Why the big secrets? If the Government and Quigley are sure about this policy and project then the fear they might get criticised is not enough to keep it secret.

Unreasonable secrecy in Government is never a good thing! The fact that the Governor General has played a part, in what is tantamount to a 'coverup' is rather disturbing to say the least.

Now who's fudging the numbers and hiding things under the carpet?

Sylvestor