Diversity of Opinion - Diversity Across Media
Keeping SME's Fully Informed

There is now no real One Stop solution available for SME's looking for one for their online e-business needs because basically the one the government setup 7 or 8 years ago burnt through A$150 million after which it was closed down (actually recycled and renamed so as not to lose their $50 million budget), with no real identifiable return on investment from this modest sum of $50 million a year over 5 years. Out of a yearly government revenue take of around A$300 billion it could be called modest if you happen to be a government mandarin and as it probably gets lost in the petty cash receipts box anyway. Obviously if BOA had say only A$5 million (or even less) of this wasted A$150 million we would be delivering the..."Worlds most advanced business directory " by now and with a real ROI on your scarce capital (not a claimed ROI created by some government gasbag.)... But we digress from other issues of good governance such as duplication...And where does it begin and end?...

Obviously creating a Future Fund to sock away more of your hard earned money for the benefit of politicians and bureaucrats can only be an incentive for more government, which in turn keeps already overblown government empires growing and undermines democracy and free speech as they have more to keep from being exposed to the public. In addition government's Industry Assistance of $20 billion a year over the past 20 years hasn't worked to the extent possible except it has created an unaccountable ever expanding network of secretive bureaucracy that potentially impedes free market entrepreneurial initiative.
An SME Bank should be a priority but of course it will potentially force the big 4 banks to compete in ways they have never had to to date, which in turn would benefit SME's and the economy. In addition it would reduce the waste in such secretive schemes as Industry Assistance, which should be a more efficient use of scarce capital.

Deregulation of Australia's telecommunications was supposed to have happened starting at least 10 years ago but Australia is still captive to a national monopoly in the form of Telstra's old media copper networks and infrastructure that continues to get promoted as a form of broadband. Subscribers pay for high broadband bandwidth but always get dial up speeds.
It is also no coincidence that old media such as FTA-TV including FoxTel benefit from this neglect, which is therefore a subsidy paid for by SME's and consumers.
Telstra is also sitting on a nationwide network of unlit fibre optic infrastructure that was installed at least 5 years ago. Why is it kept out of service as dark or unlit fibre? Was it because the Telstra share price had to be kept artificially high during the T1, T2, T3 sale to the public. And also to protect the old TV media networks?
What has this sneaky subsidisation of old media and old copper infrastructure cost you and still is costing you? Thereby stifling innovation and unprecedented new media benefits. And what has the expensive ACCC bureaucracy been doing for 10 years to protect SME's and consumers?

Nothing much changes as the politicians and bureaucrats would have to be on another planet not to know how inefficient, counterproductive and expensive they are. As if more proof were needed.
And having watched it grow over decades it's clear they won't be making any real changes only a lot of activity that generates the appropriate impression "they're making it happen!". Changes to the culture of government are necessary, because the problem is institutionalised and systemic with too many living off it to allow it be dramatically reduced let alone eliminated. And how much of this $650 million each year is also the result of corruption? Where's ICAC? Where's NSW Government Audit Office? Well, where's your government?