Teacher lectures lesser mortals
In a letter to The Australian Pauline McCarthy from Kingswood, SA has her say.
Back in the 1950s, copper wire was rolled out in our suburb, but it was not until the early 60s that we could afford the telephone. It changed my life, for with three pennies knotted in a hankie I was able to freewheel through the illicit delights of adolescence. But the telephone was essential for our neighbourhood schools, the hospital, business and industry. It’s the same today. The ordinary homeowner may not see the necessity of the NBN, but as a school teacher, I can tell you it’s essential. Whenever we have two classes on line in our primary school, the rest of us have to whistle Dixie interminably. It’s the local businesses, hospital and schools which need this rollout. Soon our students will be adults, and then broadband connection will be as endemic as the old dial-up telephone became.I think Pauline is a bit taken up with her being a teacher as she points out she is much smarter than the ordinary homeowners but she really misses the point that these non Dip Ed punters are making. Her case is for for improved broadband, not NBN, and no thinking person would argue that isn’t a good cause. What people are arguing about is the cost of the NBN as proposed by the ALP. Do we go from the current situation straight to $50 odd billion or is there a solution somewhere in between and do we put all our eggs in the fiber optics basket or is wireless broadband going to improve as the younger generation throw off the shackles of being tied to the home. Reasonable questions that the ALP refuse to answer while it would appear that Pauline isn’t even aware that the questions exist.