From The Campaign Trail

John Howard's Government has been remarkably slow to understand the importance of high speed broadband as critical infrastructure. A decade of neglect and ignorance has left this country significantly disadvantaged. The World Economic Forum ranks Australia 25th in the world, for available internet bandwidth, and Australia's 'Networked Readiness' at 15th and slipping. The same Forum ranks the Australian Government's success in promoting Information Communications Technology at just 53rd in the world. Former PBL Chairman James Packer has described Australia's broadband position as "embarrassing"; Rupert Murdoch has blasted it as a "disgrace". Fairfax Media CEO David Kirk has gone further, labelling Australian broadband as "fraudband". Only now it's an election year is this government scrambling to cobble together something that should have been in place years ago.