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Over the years, blame has been laid on various individuals and organisations for the fiasco that is known as the national broadband network. But we've neglected to turn the blowtorch on one party that has played a big role in things turning out this way.
And that party, dear reader, is us.
Yes, you and I, the same people who stare back at us from that mirror in the morning. In a democratic country, even a flawed one like Australia, voters have the chance to speak at the ballot box. The problem is that many voters did not think of themselves - they were too hung up on left and right.
In 2010 and 2013, people who are now whinging about slow speeds on the NBN made the wrong choice.
{loadposition sam08}And, no, this is not about Labor or Coalition, it is all about holding one's nose and voting to get what one wants. Politics be damned, aren't our interests paramount?
The problem is that we are driven to vote by all kinds of impulses other than selfishness. If we were really driven by self-interest, then fibre-to-the-home would have prevailed.
If anyone seriously thought about the future of their children or grand-children, or even their own future vis-a-vis the network, then they would have all realised that it is better to do things properly and to do them once.
They would have put every other consideration aside and asked for a full-fibre diet. That is the only lasting solution, the only one that does need money to be paid out for years without end, the one that ensures you can look at a future where certain kinds of jobs that require a lot of bandwidth can be done here.
And, if the hip pocket was the decisive factor, then you and I would have voted for fibre.
One may hate the political party advocating a policy but if it serves your own ends, then you have to back that party.
We are also to blame for the fact that we have allowed politicians to make the NBN a football for their own games. Technology should be the decisive factor when making a judgement of this nature, not the fact that someone advocating technology X is left-wing or tilting to the right.
If a country like India could put politics on the backburner when it needed a metro railway in the capital, New Delhi, then why cannot Australia do so? The Delhi metro was built ahead of schedule, under budget and started making money from day one.
It was kept free of political interference and the man who ran the project, Dr. E. Sreedharan, a former employee of the country's railways, was given carte blanche to do it the way he wanted. He only had a deadline and a budget and could hire whom he wanted.
So we can keep blaming Labor or Coalition but hey, we had a choice, didn't we? So let's fess up, each and every one of us, and take our fair share of the blame.
