Perth Voice Interactive

A win for that dem thing
IT’S called democracy! Democracy is engaging with people, as the City of Canning is now doing with regard to ward boundaries, representatives, councillors and other issues affecting the residents.
Unlike the undemocratic forced amalgamation shambles promoted by the Barnett government, which finally surrendered to common sense after an expensive and fierce opposition by concerned residents.
Thank you to every person in all the councils who attended meetings, wrote letters, signed petitions and spoke against undemocratic amalgamations.
William Booth
Queen St, Bentley

Labor’s NBN fantasy tale
I SOMETIMES find it amusing to read claims from Labor party representatives about Australia having been on the cusp of a broadband revolution in September, 2013.
From the way those such as the Member for Perth Alannah MacTiernan tell the story, every household in WA was about to be connected to superfast broadband and then—whoosh!—power was cruelly snatched from Labor’s hands.
The facts, however, present a much different picture.
And as disappointing as Ms MacTiernan may find it, the political slate was not magically wiped clean on the day she was elected as the Member for Perth. Indeed, if Ms MacTiernan is looking for answers, she should start by interrogating Labor colleagues like former communications minister Stephen Conroy, who was so underwhelming in his job that by the time of the last election, there were just 34 houses in Perth connected to Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network in established neighbourhoods. In WA in total, just 75 houses were connected.
This was the sum total of Labor’s efforts in WA, four-and-a-half years after the first Rudd government announced the full details of its NBN plan in April 2009. The situation was so dire and Labor’s management of the project so appalling the contractor responsible for the NBN rollout in WA, Syntheo, pulled out of the project under Labor’s watch.
This meant there were 47 sites around WA listed on maps—which Labor used as a campaign tool—as being “under construction” when in fact there was no contractor in place, let alone any construction work occurring.
While Labor figures are busy indulging their fantasies about the NBN they couldn’t actually deliver, the Coalition government has been getting on with actual delivery.
In the first 18 months following the Coalition government’s election, 14,116 premises have been connected to the fibre network throughout WA in built-up suburbs, and an additional 10,351 premises signed up in new estates.
In other words, the Abbott government has done vastly more to get the NBN rollout on track in WA in its first 18 months than Labor did in four-and-a-half years of the NBN project. Furthermore, claims about FTTP being the only way to unleash the NBN’s full benefits were demonstrably false.
The present government modelled the economic costs and benefits of numerous broadband technologies and found the relative benefits of FTTP were low because of the high cost and long time-frame in deploying it. Furthermore, an independent cost-benefit analysis—which Labor pointedly refused to undertake—found that the Coalition’s multi-technology mix NBN model will deliver $18 billion in economic benefits, compared to only $2 billion under Labor’s model.
The former Labor government’s plethora of political problems and its ultimate defeat came about, in large part, because it continually over-promised and under-delivered, seeming to care more about grabbing headlines than actually delivering for local residents.
Although Ms MacTiernan was not in federal parliament for the disaster of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, her claims and flagrant disregard for the facts regarding the NBN in Perth suggest she is yet to learn the lessons of those calamitous years. The suburbs within the Perth electorate about which Ms MacTiernan has made recent comment are actually included on the rollout schedule.
The difference is that unlike Labor, this government only declares a site is “under construction” when the contracts are actually signed, and the project can actually be delivered.
That is what transparency is all about—not pie-in-the-sky promises that can’t ever be delivered.
Dean Smith
Liberal Senator for WA

Apeing beliefs
IT is now known that human beings are indisputably evolved from a common ancestor with apes. Science has proved beyond doubt it’s a fact.
Thank goodness we live in a democratic society, where we can debate with intellect. Not like these religion-owned societies which are constantly hostile to anyone who doesn’t believe in their particular beliefs.
Darryl Kype
Menora Village
The Ed says: “Our Father, which art in heaven…thy will be done.” This pledge of religious servility launches Australia’s parliament each session, where the evolved apes we vote in clearly aren’t overly enamoured with science as it relates to climate change; nor in introducing marriage equality as desired by the overwhelming majority of voters.

Job going
SEEMS likely the UK’s frenzied election will herald a new era of democracy.
This with minority voices giving politicians in general—to quote a Tory rebel, Zach Goldsmith—“a kick up the pants.” Urgently needed, someone to 2-up Colin Barnett’s pants.
Charlie Benskin
Jacob’s Ladder, Kings Park