The reluctance of the Federal Government to be transparent about the assumptions underpinning the investment in the NBN would fail the tests of due diligence most boards undertake when making a major commercial allocation of resources.
As a cynical shareholder in “Australia Inc” my suspicion is that the hard work has not been done, and that the underpinning assumptions that have been made are emotionally driven, and short term in nature, rather than by a long term view of the best way to spend shareholders money for the long term competiveness of the enterprise, in this case, the country.
I would resign from any of the commercial boards I contribute to in the event that it determined to make a “bet the farm” investment in a manner that removed flexibility in manner in which the investment was made in the face of a highly ambiguous and rapidly evolving commercial, technical and competitive environment. The only thing we know for sure about investments made under these circumstances is that nothing ever goes completely according to plan, so flexibility and technical agility in the execution of the plan to achieve the desired outcome is essential.
The role of the opposition in this debate is crucial, an optimist would be hopeful that their motives and views are formed by the long term financial and social return that will come from being “competitively connected” in a global world. Malcolm Turnbull appears to be making a good start, hopefully the politics of the thing do not overcome the increasing opportunities to just kick the Government for the sake of the political equivalent of the rush a mugger must get when they stick the boot in.
