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Available at Henry Thornton.

Australian electors are now able to analyse each party’s Broadband policy, available from each of their websites: Labor’s “New Directions in Communications” and the Government’s “Broadband Connect”.

The ALP’s policy was one of the Rudd-team’s first policy announcements, and it was significant if only for the proposed cost — $4.7 billion — that was being drawn out of our Orwellian Future Fund. Not surprisingly, the Howard Government accused the ALP of “raiding the Future Fund” in a bid for political benefit, and they argued that the Broadband rollout should be done by private industry.

Good call but, if that is true, why is it that our current Internet speeds are so behind international best practice?

Four months went by, and the Howard Government has hit back with its cheaper alternative, at the bargain basement price of $958 million. The Ruddsters have accused the Coalition of backing the wrong, poorer technology. Rudd referred to an OECD report that found wireless technology, which the Government is backing, requires favourable weather, flat landscapes and low use levels. Favourable weather? In Australia? (Henry at the time of writing is about to be hustled onto an early flight from Sydney, the aim being to move as many people as possible out before the mother of all storms hits.)

This political bickering is to be expected, and does make it difficult to figure out which policy is better. But one thing is for sure, faster Broadband is something the community - especially Henry's boys - needs ASAP.

According to the Roy Morgan SmartCompany Opinion Leader Survey, a survey of small and medium enterprises, 78% of SMEs said that the Federal Government should fund (or partially fund) improved Broadband infrastructure. Furthermore, an uncomfortably high 33% of SMEs answered yes to “Is your current Broadband service holding your business back?”

Ninety-one per cent of SMEs said faster Broadband was either “very important” or “moderately important” to their business. Clearly the Government has to invest in something so important to the productivity of our nation, especially given that our productivity is on the wane.

As the Roy Morgan graph below clearly shows, the major mover in the media industry over the past ten years has been Internet access. This rapid uptake was despite Australia ranking a lowly second last out of 26 OECD countries for average Broadband download speeds.

Could it be that our Internet speeds have been artificially held back because our traditional media — newspapers and television — have not put pressure on Government, because it would mean shooting themselves in the foot? There is an obvious incentive for our traditional media to keep the Broadband debate from the front pages (and hence debates around the nation's barbeques), because faster Internet speeds would force traditional media to radically restructure their marketing models.

However, Henry believes that it would be difficult to imagine electors in general debating the merits of each broadband policy the way they would be likely to debate a more racy issue like Industrial Relations. But perhaps the teenagers will do so, and their votes may just become important.

For more reading, visit Henry Thornton.

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