John Linton ts always good to start the day with a good laugh and Stupid Stephen can always be relied on to make a set of statements so ludicrous that even the most jaundiced and cynical of people (which I hope I'm not) wouldn't be able to help themselves and at least smile broadly if their nature didn't allow them to laugh long and hard out loud.
His latest cloud cuckoo land pronouncements are set out in this article from the Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23551163-20142,00.html
in which he tries to fend off the inevitable conclusions, reached by practically everybody in the communications business, that Telstra 'bought' the Labor party with cash and leverage of their shareholders during the last election and their quid pro quo (or should that be dollar pro quo) was the restoration of the telecommunications monopoly.
The sheer panic evident in Stupid Stephen's comments in this article (and I'm making the assumption that the quotes are factual) is almost beyond belief if they are meant to come from someone who is responsible for 'managing' the communications industry in this country.
To defend a 'tender' by saying that:
"Depending on the nature of the proposals we receive, I'm prepared to look very carefully at much stronger separation measures than are in place right now.
"Any consideration of regulatory wind-back will only be considered in the context of improvements to the underlying structure of the sector,"
he is, tacitly, admitting:
1) Of course Telstra wil be selected
and
2) Of course we will 'adjust the Telecommunications Act' to allow them to rebuild a total monopoly by bankrupting those companies who have invested in DSLAMs by rendering their investments worthless.
What other construction can be put on that, clearly panicky, attempted rebuttal of:
"We're starting to get the impression that a secret deal has been done with Telstra,"
But, and despite the heretical nature of this comment:
Does it really matter in Australia today if the Labor party ditches the Telecommunications Act and hands billions of dollars to Telstra to improve the data network that is an essential part of every Australian child's life and also very important to many adult Australians?
I don't think so.
I think it would be more sensible to have a single network built as quickly as possible rather than continue the current farce of pretending there is any real competitive environment in wire line/cable telecommunications in Australia. I doubt that Telstra even needs or wants Stupid Stephen's billions of dollars but if he insists on lending it then it should be repaid over a sensible commercial period.
I understand that Telstra will charge more than anyone else would for the resulting service but does that really matter? People still buy petrol at prices far higher than they would like but as it's essential and, perhaps, Labor will use what's left of the Telecommunications Act to 'control' the prices charged for the new network to some reasonable extent.
The worst that can happen is that over the next five to ten years Telstra continues to behave so arrogantly and rapaciously that a future Coalition government will enact new legislation that forcibly separates Telstra into the two parts that should have been done originally.
In the meantime the only real competitors to Telstra in Australia - the mobile network owners - can get on with implementing LTE or whatever that becomes and eventually remove cable and wire from the residential user's requirements.
Problem solved!
Lets all get back to doing productive things that don't involve the ACCC, a rapacious monopolist and a venal 'government'.
All Australians would be better off.