Today at 4pm, Communications Minister Helen Coonan took on Labor communications spokesperson Stephen Conroy in a spirited debate that aired live on Sky News and ZDNet Australia. If you would like to see a replay of the coverage, please click here.
Coonan and Conroy confronted the communications issues facing Australia, including many of the concerns raised by ZDNet Australia readers earlier in the week.
Check out these links for related news on telecoms, broadband, regulation of the telecoms industry, the skills shortage and other issues for Australian communications.
To compare the differences in election policy, read ZDNet Australia's coverage of WiMax technology, or fibre-to-the-node, the education revolution and new technical colleges.
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Ash Laws
17/11/2007 10:16 AM
You gotta love hearing politicians debate something that they don't really seem to know. They get bogged down on things such as 'the laws of physics' and other rediculous figures that they should both know. Helen Coonan also keeps on interrupting and gloating about the current government. Conroy is at least a little more modest, if a little ill-informed about current technology. It would have been good if David Speers (the moderator) had solid figures of the different technologies (fibre, WiMAX, etc.) and could pull up the politicians when they stated outright lies.
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ones_conscience
18/11/2007 02:03 AM
If you examine the increased screen time given to Coonan vs the minimised time given to Conroy it would seem that there is an editorial bias here?
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pixolut
20/11/2007 12:53 PM
This is the fundamental issue with the current political process, no matter which political party we choose, the delivery of uninformed cronies to manage portfolios CRITICAL to the future of this nation. Truth is that neither party has a clue. Fibre to the node does nothing unless there is a strategy for managing the digital divide - inequity which poverty causes where those who still cannot afford computers or access digital information. Who cares if you have fibre to a node with no money to own a computer?! IS it really the role of the government to fixate on broadband? Would it not make more sense to provide subsidies for subscribers to use current broadband which make the market itself more bouyant and allow for organic growth of newer wimax and fibre technologies? With $30 billion the government could subsidise 16 million broadband users over 5 years with $375 per annum! Do you notice that about 10% of this rubbish talk was about an education'policy'? (I use quotes on purpose here because its faux policy on both sides of the fence) What about the interfering with the Australian public's interest in Telstra? I do say Australian pulic on purpose because when Telstra is being privatised - that is who actually owns it now - rather than by government proxy... Ladies and gentlemen, you should all be very afraid - I really don't think we have a chance at a truely progressive economy whoever wins the next election.
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pixolut
20/11/2007 12:53 PM
This is the fundamental issue with the current political process, no matter which political party we choose, the delivery of uninformed cronies to manage portfolios CRITICAL to the future of this nation. Truth is that neither party has a clue. Fibre to the node does nothing unless there is a strategy for managing the digital divide - inequity which poverty causes where those who still cannot afford computers or access digital information. Who cares if you have fibre to a node with no money to own a computer?! IS it really the role of the government to fixate on broadband? Would it not make more sense to provide subsidies for subscribers to use current broadband which make the market itself more bouyant and allow for organic growth of newer wimax and fibre technologies? With $30 billion the government could subsidise 16 million broadband users over 5 years with $375 per annum! Do you notice that about 10% of this rubbish talk was about an education'policy'? (I use quotes on purpose here because its faux policy on both sides of the fence) What about the interfering with the Australian public's interest in Telstra? I do say Australian pulic on purpose because when Telstra is being privatised - that is who actually owns it now - rather than by government proxy... Ladies and gentlemen, you should all be very afraid - I really don't think we have a chance at a truely progressive economy whoever wins the next election.
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Mark Johnson
20/11/2007 01:24 PM
In the recent debate, Senator Conroy claimed that VoIP over WiMAX was not possible. This is factually incorrect. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has recently approved 802.16e as one of the global IMT2000 standards. Many service operators around the world like British Telecom (UK), MVS (Mexico) and others are planning VoIP service using WiMAX equipment.
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