With Australia heading for the polls to decide who represents the country in the federal election, technology, more specifically Broadband, could play a key part in deciding who wins.
It’s pretty hard to spot the differences between the two main political forces contesting the 2010 election. Both are committed to reducing the national debt, combating illegal and unwanted immigration, and tackling environmental issues. So, with the big issues being agreed upon, it’s going to come down to the more obscure policies. And personality, of course, but that’s another matter.
One thing the two main contenders differ on is how to bring better Internet coverage to the majority of the population. With just 0.1 percent of the population currently having access to fiber-optics, something clearly needs to be done. But what that is, and how much it will cost, is a serious bone of contention.
Julia Gillard and the Labor party want to see a super-fast network of fiber-optics rolled out across the country. The National Broadband Network would, on completion, bring 90 percent of all Australian homes into reach of a Broadband connection. But doing so won’t be cheap, with an estimated budget of US$39 billion needed to bring the project to fruition.
Tony Abbott and the Liberal party consider this to be an unnecessary waste of money at a time when the country, and wider world, is still facing the tail-end of a serious recession. So they want to scrap the NBN and pursue a cheaper alternative which would less than US$6 billion spent on providing the country with a Broadband backbone which can then be used by telecoms firms to offer wireless Broadband options to most of the country.
Fortunately, it seems whoever wins the election will be tackling the issue head-on. It’s just the approach which is going to differ. This choice may not be enough to decide the outcome of the election, but it may well end up having a say. Which just shows how much Australians, like the rest of the world, want the best possible Internet service they can get.
