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How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

nytimes.com

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Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#4

Post by i336_ »

Frogolocalypse wrote: post #2

So they promoted the guy who screwed up the project, Malcolm Turnbull, to be Prime Minister.

The lead singer in Midnight Oil sung "How do we sleep / While our beds are burning" in 1987... and in 2009 the same person (Peter Garret), in his position as Minister for Environment Protection (among other things), was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires.

You basically have to have a humorectomy to be able to follow Australian politics. Otherwise you go crazy from too much cracking up.

--

Some qualifying info to add some substance so this isn't just hyperbole and commentary:

- IIRC, what was happening is that the installers weren't being paid enough, and they were nailing the insulation haphazardly without identifying where the 240V lines ran underneath the batts so they could dodge those areas with their staple guns. Said insulation batts had foil on them. So sparks flew where wood met aluminium and exposed/partially-shorted wiring. Even more tragically, four installers were also electrocuted (AFAIK/IIUC) by live foil on the batts during installation.

- Mr Garret was actually really mature about the situation and took full responsibility, stated that he wasn't fully informed about various risks, and did raise issues about safety multiple times that were not listened to. So there's that.

Some random sources/articles I found:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/peter-garre...

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/peter-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Garrett

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#8

Post by marak830 »

I was born and raised in Australia, I left for Japan just as the NBN was beginning to roll out.

It's an absolute disgrace how much it has been butchered. I have thoughts about returning occasionally, but going from 2 GB/s unlimited for Aus$ 40 ish a month, back to those speeds and prices is a major factor for me staying here.

It is a massive quality of life difference to have amazing internet.

Re: How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

#9

Post by flukus »

i336_ wrote: post #4
Frogolocalypse wrote: post #2

So they promoted the guy who screwed up the project, Malcolm Turnbull, to be Prime Minister.

The lead singer in Midnight Oil sung "How do we sleep / While our beds are burning" in 1987... and in 2009 the same person (Peter Garret), in his position as Minister for Environment Protection (among other things), was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires. You basically have to have a humorectomy to be able to follow Australian politics. Otherwise you go…

> was the driving force behind a home-insulation scheme that was found to be the cause of 224 house fires.

House fires went down statistically. The absolute number of fires was higher because more homes were getting insulation, but fires per insulated home went down.

The real cause is business efficiency, hiring cheaper workers and not training them properly. You can't hold the government responsible for every grunt a private business hires. You don't hear the current lot taking direct responsibility for the recent shooting in our offshore detention facilities.

Edit - in hindsight it's a perfect example of how "fake news" isn't a recent problem.

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