On taxation funding for the press

David Salter writes: Re. “Fray: a decent proposal to save public interest journalism” (Wednesday)

Peter Fray’s noble attempt to characterise journalism as a service “that keeps all sorts of bastards honest” might help those seeking to justify some form of subsidy support for the trade. But the problem with that position is that so much of the journalism consumed every day is none of the kind. It is entertainment. Further, his proposal that to qualify for any incentive scheme an outlet would first “need to show evidence of engaging with – and listening to – audiences” would have the unintended effect of favouring crass populism over the lofty “public interest” journalism Fray wishes to encourage. As our tabloid editors demonstrate every day it is easy to whip up sentiment in their readers on any issue, then boast about how the public has responded. Behold proof of our “collaborative practice” — now hand over the moolah!

On NBN response times

Laurie Patton Executive Director, Internet Australia writes: Re. “Slow down, you move too fast” (Wednesday)

In 2020 NBN Co will no doubt still owe the Government circa $19 billion and will face a multi-billion expense to replace all the FTTN connections (no, it’s not an upgrade, it’s a rebuild). Senator Fifield knows this, but there’s nothing he can do now but grin and bear the increasing opprobrium until the Government inevitably decides to abandon FTTN. They’re already starting the process, by continually expanding the footprint for FTTdp (fibre to the driveway).

Kerry Henry writes: Re. “Slow down, you move too fast” (Wednesday)

Love your work. I’m continually p***** off with commentary on the NBN talking about households downloading movies faster or  being able to play a faster online games. I don’t give a rat’s arse about households, other than those who might be making an income from a home-based business. Small businesses are those that need fast internet speed to serve their clients; locally employ; and help employees be a householder. Small business increasingly is paying the salaries for people to actually have a household!!!

My business has just converted to NBN and it’s pathetic! Ongoing outage which means phone lines fail, as we now rely on VOIP, versus old copper wire. Yes, data speed marginally better than before, but 70% less than what was guaranteed. Reason — NBN not providing sufficient infrastructure to allow NBN providers like Telstra, Optus, Iinet, TPG, etc. to deliver what they seek to achieve. As expert Paul Dudde has said from get go, when Abbott shafted Turnbull as Communication Minister to scale down Conroy’s proposal, purely for political reasons re budget savings (note wasted monies on blown out budgets on new fighter aircraft and submarines to secure extra votes in SA) we would end up with a second, maybe third rate, NBN. No wonder small businesses that rely on fast broadband to support international clients are shifting operations offshore.