I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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Finally, National has commented on Infrastructure.
John Key MP, Leader of the National Party, Speech to the Southern Regional Conference, Invercargill:
… What’s more, we’ll make New Zealand an attractive place for entrepreneurs by ensuring we have world-class infrastructure. National will bring urgency to the task of developing the transport and telecommunications networks that New Zealanders deserve.
This includes upping the country’s game on broadband. It’s shameful that large parts of New Zealand are saddled with second-rate, archaically slow Internet connections. It’s unacceptable that so many businesses, including many in the southern region, find themselves in broadband ‘black-spots’, unable to get the speed of Internet connection demanded by global commerce. How can we expect to compete with First World countries if our Internet network is third-rate?
I think the Internet has the power to do for New Zealand what refrigerated shipping did. Used well, it can bring Kiwi products and services tantalisingly close to huge global markets. It’s a disgrace that prevarication by Telecom and Labour has choked these opportunities. New Zealand has fallen well behind the Internet eight-ball.
Each year of prevarication is another year which New Zealand slips further behind the rest of the world. We can no longer expect our businesses to race in sandshoes while their competitors run in Air Jordans. Every Kiwi business deserves a racing edge.
So today, I would like to send a very clear message; dramatically increasing the speed and coverage of broadband will be an economic priority for National. We are working on policies to achieve this objective and you can expect to hear more about them in future.
John Key is a clever guy, as is David Cunliffe. With the smacking issue and yesterdays discussion on interest and exchange rates there is a degree of cross party discussions going on. I think the electorate likes that. We are seeing a more conciliatory style from Telecom. Time to get around the table. This is too important to be a political issue.
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*Cough* So did he mention prevarications past under Procrastinator-General, Maurice Williamson, by any chance?
Rod - you are right, on the micro scale cross party dialogue is necessary to solve matters such as s59, Telecom etc etc. On the macro scale however the buy-in need to be more than cross party at central government. We need to integrate educationalists, local and central government, business people and other stakeholders in order to get some go forward on the issues facing New Zealand. The answer lies in finding something akin to the Dubai/Ireland model but with relevancy for our unique situational factors. But it needs significant buy in from many different stakeholder groups. I’m keen to facilitate something akin to TED but on a NZ scale and without the hyperbole of The Knowledge wave. Have a look at my blog and some of the writing I’ve done - I’d be keen to talk more about what needs to happen. Regards ben benkepes.wordpress.com
Just want to second Juha on Maurice Williamson. IMO he was a blockage for the ‘tubes’ and should not be allowed near the portfolio.
Jim you mention the crux of the matter, cross party dialogue and buy in that scales past our three year electoral cycle. With sufficient buy in on a cross party central government level we’d be amazed how the other barriers would disappear rapidly regards Ben
benkepes.wordpress.com
Jim? I hadn’t commented. Ben - you’re over-blogging, I think!
It would just be a waste of bandwidth if you prioritize good internet connection in a place where there would be less people using the internet. If you want the fastest internet connections in the world, go to the hot spots.