While I think you are correct in this case, I can imagine the same argument being put when telegraph was being replaced by telephone, and when manual call operators were replaced with automated switching.
The hope is that the bugs will be ironed out - fast!
In fact it reminds me of the two men who died in Perth a couple of years ago when there was a power failure. They were both on life support equipment, and I think emergency services were supposed to be automatically notified - but were not for some reason. (Happy for someone to fill in the details on this story.)
While it is not something I have done for decades, the whole idea of selling off our NBN before it’s fit for purpose would get me along to rallies and mass protests (which I should have done when our Medibank was sold at mate’s rates).
The NBN is a clear, natural monopoly. There may be a couple of suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne where competition might appear - in the same way as Optus and Telstra ran cable down the same streets in the same suburbs but ignored the rest of Australia - but the rest of us will be shafted by any privatisation. I think the Labor Party needs to start standing up for what it calls its core values, and reject outright any sale of vital infrastructure including but not limited to the NBN.
The only case I can see for Telstra buying the NBN is after Telstra has been re-nationalised. Otherwise, our ‘democracy’ will show once again that profits are put before people.
