Displaying items by tag: Coalition government

One of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's contributions to the national broadband network, the HFC network, has been termed a dog's breakfast by a retail service provider.

The man chosen by the Rudd Labor Government to head the NBN Co when it was formed has not held back in criticising the Coalition for what he called "a colossal mistake" when it decided to change the mix of technology for the NBN from one that would be mostly fibre to one in which copper would dominate.

While many people are rejoicing over the Coalition Government's backflip on its NBN policy and its announcement that it will spend to get fibre delivered to up to eight million subscribers in all, nobody should for a moment think that this is some Damascene conversion.

The Australian Labor Party has questioned why 139,963 household and business users of fibre-to-the-node connections on the NBN still cannot get the mandated speeds of 25Mbps.

It now appears to be perfectly clear what kind of public broadcaster the Coalition Government wants: a pliant set of robots who scrape and curtsy every time their glorious masters are sighted. Something more in the style of India's Doordarshan and All India Radio.

The Federal Government needs to draft a statement of expectation as to what it expects to happen to the national broadband network next, after the network rollout is officially over at the end of the month, veteran telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says, adding that otherwise Australia will continue to languish in the broadband wilderness.

Barring a major catastrophe, the Coalition Government will be able to announce within a fortnight or so that it has completed the rollout of the national broadband network and met its target. One can only hope that, at the same time, there will be an announcement about how the network will be upgraded.

The Coalition Government's plan to pay Australians to make up for the money they have lost due to either losing their jobs or the fact that their employers have no funds to pay them appears to be a curiously long-winded exercise, which may end up being of little use.

Going by the details in the recently released NBN Co corporate plan for 2020-23, one would not be surprised if work was still proceeding on the Australian national broadband network beyond 2030.

The Coalition Government made the right choice back in 2013 to adopt a multi-technology mix for rolling out the national broadband network, ditching a Labor plan to have fibre to 93% of homes and service the rest through fixed wireless and satellite, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says.

The Australian Greens have called on the Federal Government to immediately halt the recovery of money claimed to be owed to Centrelink and calculated through the use of data, after the Department of Human Services wiped a $4000 debt that was at the heart of a Federal Court challenge to the recovery scheme.

Twitter accounts that are controlled largely by bots have been observed targeting Australians in the run-up to the Federal Election on 18 May, a researcher from the Queensland University of Technology Digital Media Research Centre claims.

The chief executive of a cyber security firm in Canberra says the announcement of $156 million in funding by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to bolster cyber security efforts that are in place to guard the country's communications networks, would do little to directly improve the protection of government agencies.

The Coalition Government will pledge $156 million to bolster cyber security efforts that are in place to guard the country's communications networks, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison set to make the pledge on Monday.

Australia's digital economy has grown by slightly more than $14 billion between the years 2012-13 and 2016-17, a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics says.

The Australian Labor Party has described as "ridiculous" a claim made by the government that the NBN Co — which released its half-yearly results on Monday — was continuing to exceed its targets.

The Federal Government's controversial encryption bill has been passed by Parliament without any amendments due to there being a lack of time for Labor to add any amendments in the Senate.

The Federal Government and the Labor Party have reportedly reached a compromise on the encryption bill and it will clear Parliament before Thursday, the last sitting day for the year.

The Federal Government appears likely to bring its encryption bill up for debate in the lower house on Wednesday, just a day after the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security holds its final hearing on the draft legislation.

The Australian Labor Party has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of compromising national security by insisting on having the government's encryption bill passed in its current form, and being unwilling to strike a compromise with Labor.