As highlighted several times, the NBN is one of the biggest wastes of money any Australian Government has ever committed to. And according to Kevin Morgan of the Australian Newspaper it, “is hopelessly behind schedule and its plan in tatters”.

The only town where the NBN is on schedule is Armidale in Northern NSW, 45 minutes from where I grew up.

And why is that? Well, let me tell you.

The NBN only got the go ahead because of a certain Tony Windsor, who backed Gillard to form a Government based on the NBN plan…

…And of course, Armidale falls smack bang in the middle of his New England Electorate.

Of the 34,600 houses expected to be connected by June, over 25% of them will be in Armidale.

Taxpayers should be outraged at such blatant political bribery, which leads to wasting huge amounts of their hard earned money.

I doubt Gillard or Windsor will be around past the next election to clean up the mess. But we’ll be stuck with an expensive white elephant that will provide little value for money and be out-dated by the time it’s finished.

Latest opinion polls show the Gillard Government approval ratings are down to 27%.

That’s the same level Anna Bligh had, which saw the Labor party wiped off the map in Qld.

“But we need a fast broadband network!” Some people foolishly claim. As if that somehow justifies the waste of over $36 billion dollars (and counting) and the decade or so before we’ll have it.

Of course we need a fast broadband network. There’s no argument there.

The argument isn’t that we don’t need fast broadband network, rather that we don’t need to spend $36 billion (which is likely to exceed $50 billion) to have one.

We don’t need a plan that the Government refuses to do a cost benefit analysis on.

Nor do we need to wait 8 years (that will no doubt stretch to 10+ years) for one to be built, which will by then have a high probability of being obsolete.

Has no else noticed, by the way, that with the rapid growth of smart phones most of us already access the Internet via Wi Fi… let alone in 10 years time.

This is where more money needs urgent investing, because its traffic is already jammed.

Notice how Wi Fi Internet speeds are becoming slower in most areas…

An NBN can be built for a lot less (like $25 – $30 billion less) and rolled out where it’s needed most, like in major and capital cities.

Why is it China has high speed Internet already? Why do Australians have to wait 8 to 10 years?

And why is the rollout occurring in country areas and Tasmania first?

Wouldn’t ensuring the CBDs of major cities are covered ASAP be the way to go? And it would be done for a fraction of the costs too. What I mean is, focussing 20% of the effort and money to cover 80% of the result.

Maybe the Gillard Government and NBN board should have attended the Financial Education Summit in Melbourne last year, and listened to best-selling author Tim Ferriss share the power of the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 principle).

Yet here, in any capital city in Australia – let alone rural Australia – we have some of the slowest Internet speeds of any modern economy.

Less than 1.7 million homes are likely to be connected within 3 years, well below the 4.173 projected.

And what about the new housing estates that are meant to be connected upfront? Out of the 135,000 projected, by now only a measly 798 are ready for service. Appalling.

My millionaire mentor always taught me, when running a business:

“Be wary of employees, because it’s easy to spend other people’s money. It’s human nature. So in business, don’t put incompetent people, who don’t value money in charge of a chequebook, otherwise they’ll send you broke.”

I wish only Julia Gillard had had access to my mentor and some sound advice. Then this great country of ours wouldn’t be $250 billion in debt, with little to show for it – when the previous Government had retired nearly all Australia’s debt.

However, as Australians, do we not know by now: Labor Governments know how to spend tax payers money to bribe the electorate to remain in power, invent new taxes to fill their budget black holes, and run up massive debts?

Then we boot them out and spend 10 years catching up to where we were.

I mean, how much further ahead could our country be, if we stopped running this idiotic pattern?

Stuck in that cycle, a country will never achieve its full potential. And we risk missing out on this once in a lifetime commodities boom because, as Australians, we allowed such amateurs into office.

And I’m sorry if this offends any Labor supporters. (I know there aren’t many left to offend these days. Statistics say 1 in 4. And those 1 in 4 die hard Labor voters will go down with the ship, they’re so committed.)

However, my point isn’t about politics. Political Parties just create division.

Australians all need to work on the one team, not continually competing against each other.

Incompetent Governments from any side of politics warrant criticism where it’s deserved and I’m sorry, but this current one deserves a lot.

If the Liberals were doing this to the country I’d be equally critical, so this is not about political bias.

It’s about an abundantly clear observation that many notice.

And we haven’t even started on the Carbon tax yet. (European carbon is currently trading at $8 – $9 per tonne yet Australia’s is going to be priced at a massive $23 per tonne. Get ready to kiss billions more of our nation’s wealth away; and achieve very little for the environment, if anything.)

There are ten times better solutions for the environment than a Carbon Tax. See my 21 ways to Improve Australia article for details.

And you know what? As I recall we didn’t elect Julia.

The Union factions sacked our elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and put Gillard in power.

Then, at her first contested election, (despite her party receiving significantly less votes than the opposition) individuals like Windsor and Oakshot (who were clearly happy accepting electoral bribes to put them in power) forced a Prime Minister upon this country that the majority of Australians voted against. And voted against for good reason.

A Prime Minister even the majority of Labor supporters don’t want.

She also promised there would be no Carbon tax, ever, under her Government.

Such democracy!

Not only does this all highlight the need for an improved, modern day 21st Century Political system…

…To better the quality of political leaders and help eliminate incompetents like this from screwing up a great country in the space of a few short years…

…It also highlights an obvious opening in Australia for a legitimate 3rd party political force.

One that the deserting Labor voters would support (which is enough to give any new party a major support base), as well as deserting Union supporters, and the many Liberal voters who don’t particularly like Abbott (but at this point in time have little choice) plus many independents…

Hmmm something to think about…

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. http://www.jamiemcintyre.com

Author Bio: Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Category: Politics
Keywords: 2012,21st Century Education,Australia,julia,gillard,Government,Jamie McIntyre,news,nbn,politics