Former ACTU official goes all out to sell "Coalition Objectivity" on broadband over dismal NBN
Friday, 08 March 2013
Kevin Morgan - Kevin has worked in telecommunications policy and regulation since the mid 1970’s, first as an adviser to the Australian labor movement and since 1993 as an independent consultant. Kevin was a member of Kim Beazley’s advisory panel that oversaw the introduction of competition in 1991 and advised the African National Congress before and after it won power in South Africa on telecommunications reform. As a consultant he has worked on licence bids in South Africa and Asia and advised the joint owners of Eircom the Irish National Telco on structural separation. He is regular contributor to newspapers on telecommunications and writes for the industry newsletter Commsday. He is also undertaking a PhD (and may well have completed it) on the ‘Origins and implications of the Telstra Capita Strike 2006’ which considers the issue of broadband investment in Australia.
The Australian newspaper does itself and its readers great service by publishing this considered commentary from Kevin.
Nick Ross - Nick Ross is the Editor of the ABC's Technology and Games online gateway. That's it for his bio from the ABC.
The ABC demeans us all by allowing the publication of Ross's Rot.
Kevin's article is difficult to read without squirming a little and feeling sorry for Mr Ross. It must be terribly unpleasant to be so publicly eviscerated. No blame should attach to Ross himself, the fault is not his, he's entitled to retain poor faculties and to mistake prejudice for reason. But the ABC is not entitled to employ so dim a wit and to unleash that tosh on us in the guise of expert commentary.
ABC's man leaves objectivity on the cutting-room floor to spruik NBN
- BY:KEVIN MORGAN
- From:The Australian
- March 08, 2013 12:00AM
THE ABC's editorial policy says information should be presented "according to the recognised standards of objective journalism", and that "credibility depends heavily on factual accuracy".
Not so for the ABC's online technology and games editor Nick Ross, who uses the ABC's technology website to spruik the National Broadband Network.
His latest missive of February 21 purports to analyse the "vast differences between the NBN and the Coalition's (broadband) alternative". Ross claims Malcolm Turnbull's plan for a less expensive broadband upgrade of the existing copper network using Fibre to the Node technology (FTTN) is vastly inferior to, and almost as expensive as the government's $37.4 billion all-fibre NBN.
That's the beginning.
The middle of Kevin's piece is 22 paragraphs that you'll have to read on The Australian's website. In them, Kevin takes Mr Ross apart.
And then these two paragraphs are The End.
Under the heading "politics" in his January 23 blog on the ABC technology website, Ross makes no bones about his objective: "With it being election year, there is a great deal to be done in informing the public about the current NBN policy and the consequences of ditching it in favour of a Coalition alternative."
There we have it, an ABC employee sees absolutely nothing wrong in using the ABC website to sell government policy at the expense of the Coalition objectivity. And factual accuracy can go begging given Ross's mission.
I omitted to add that Kevin Morgan carries the additional credential of card-carrying ACTU antecedents - which makes his advocacy in favour of the "Coalition objectivity" all the more likely to be based on reason and not tribal affiliation. The Australian carries this bio note:
Kevin Morgan served on Kim Beazley's ministerial committee on telecom reform on behalf of the ACTU and is an independent telecom consultant.