Stevej on NBN

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Another view of 2013 Liberal's "Kill the NBN" policy: maintaining Foxtel's political influence, and the conservative propaganda channel

Trump Season 2 is underway and Murdoch has seemingly retired, at least he's not commenting and being seen in public.

Murdoch worked from the mid-1980's to create the preconditions for the Regime Change we're seeing now in the USA. The Republican Party and their Super PAC's couldn't have delivered Trump Season 1 or 2, without Murdoch's astute understanding of disgruntled conservatives, now branded MAGA.

Or the toxic lies, propaganda and mis- and disinformation constantly spewed by FoxNews, while fleecing the chumps watching.

Killing the Full Fibre NBN in 2013 always puzzled me, it didn't make commercial sense, making the idea Murdoch was protecting Foxtel odd - one thing Murdoch does very well is make money, he's never been afraid to "kill his darlings" and move on.

Murdoch is a "Libertarian", opposed to Government, Taxes and Regulation (of big business), under the catch-cry of "Freedom!". Not Freedom from persecution or control, but Freedom to persecute & control.

Murdoch's ideology is writ large, shouted even, every hour on Fox News and Sky News.

It's angry, victimhood spruiking dissent and division, targeting & blaming "out groups" such as "immigrants", "indigenous", trans, Gay and other "diversity" groups, the original including Women.

His knowledge of Average White Males was always his secret commercial weapon - it looked like "lowest common denominator" with "page 3" girls and sensationalist reporting.

He's also understood all along the appeal of perceived "injustice" and "loss of entitlement & status" felt by these groups, explicitly catering to it, and rousing / coordinating it, on FoxNews.

All the while, Politicians on both sides in the USA, UK and Australia knew what was happening and haven't just allowed it, but often joined in, allowing great harm to

Murdoch rails against "Elites" while always having been economically advantaged, later becoming one of the last standing Media Moguls worth billions, just as Trump was born into wealth, knowing "normal rules don't apply to us".

The irony that MAGA's listening to Elites on FoxNews telling them that "Elites" are against them is lost on both MAGA and Trump & Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch's retirement message, underlining his ideology and operating technique:

Rupert Murdoch steps down as chairman of Fox and News Corp.
21 SEP 21 2023
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/21/rupert-murdoch-steps-down-as-chairman-of-fox-and-news-corp.html

For my entire professional life,
I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change.

I am truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through the decades,
and I owe much to my colleagues,
whose contributions to our success have sometimes been unseen outside the company but are deeply appreciated by me.

We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years - I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them.
But the battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately,
the freedom of thought,
has never been more intense.

My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause.
Self-serving bureaucracies are seeking to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose.
Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class.
Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites,
peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.

In my new role, I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas.

My friend, Vince O'Grady contributed this insightful comment, which provides a better reason for Murdoch acting against Foxtel's commercial interests.

Murdoch didn't kill the NBN to keep Foxtel. He destroyed the NBN so that he could keep the Political Influence that Foxtel brings him.

The high speed NBN would have destroyed that influence by allowing other players into the space.

My response:

Maintaining Foxtel as the sole or dominant Cable TV supplier in Oz,
with every subscription including Sky News makes a lot more sense.

It wasn't commercial protection of Foxtel,
but protecting the monopoly and the Political Influence arm,
especially in regional / rural areas.

Like the US Cable TV market, Foxtel content was unregulated, they could lie their heads off without consequence.

This focus on Political Influence as Murdoch's primary driver
was what I was getting at, I missed that was a reason to protect Foxtel at any cost.
It's why he went global, political leverage & influence.

My original note to friends for comment:

I've never been comfortable with the argument "Murdoch killed the NBN to save Foxtel".

That thought came from Paul Sheehan in the SMH, I didn't see him quote any evidence.

I've come up with a much simpler, more obvious reason:

Murdoch "campaigned", extensively, to remove Gillard / Rudd.
The NBN was a weak-point he stirred up his 'base' over - nothing more. [ plus 'influence' now ]

Murdoch hates Labor, hates Unions, hates public investment (backed Thatcher)
has openly back Conservatives in every election it suited him (allowed Whitlam to win in 1972)
is anti-intellection and anti-woke,
also 'hates the Establishment & Elites'
and is violently against Climate Change and pro-fossil fuel.

Murdoch himself tweeted:
https://theconversation.com/day-two-its-your-turn-to-tweet-rupert-16790

"Oz politics! We all like ideal of NBN, especially perfect for Foxtel.
But first how can it be financed in present situation?"

Malcolm Turnbull did one of his agonisingly long blog posts also debunking "it's all about Foxtel"

News Corp Australia vs the NBN - is it really all about Foxtel?
Paul Sheehan
https://theconversation.com/news-corp-australia-vs-the-nbn-is-it-really-all-about-foxtel-16768

MBT blog
https://web.archive.org/web/20140125185754/http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/murdoch-and-the-nbn-a-reality-check

So is Murdoch campaigning against Rudd because his NBN model threatens Foxtel?
You could only believe that if you thought Murdoch was irrational.

Paul Sheehan may consider that Rupert Murdoch is opposed to the Rudd Government for the same reason he is:
it is a Government of proven incompetence
which has run Australia into a recklessly and needlessly high level of debt,
has failed to manage one policy area after another
and is bitterly divided and dysfunctional.

Sheehan claim in his SMH article linked a opinion, not backed by evidence:

Rudd's greatest failing, in the eyes of News Corp management,
and the greatest threat he poses, is his $45 billion NBN,
a massive project announced without any serious costing.
News Corp has formed a view it represents a threat to Foxtel.

Did he have this idea himself, or was it fed to him by someone in the Press Gallery,
half of which worked for Murdoch?

"Foxtel" was a distraction and it worked very well.
It "fed the chooks" and made reporters & readers waste their time & energy on a diversion.

The main game was always ousting Labor so the Carbon Trading Scheme could be repealed.

It seems the judgement was, leading with the anti-Climate Change argument wouldn't sway the electorate,
it had to be a multi-pronged 'campaign' from all his media.

Killing the NBN was a side show, to rev up the 'base',
with the ideological bonus of killing public investment.
In this context, it makes sense of Turnbull's 5 months of campaigning, the long tour.

Murdoch became very good at getting others to do his dirty work, not dirtying his own hands.
His primary tactic was threats followed by public persecution, including unmitigated lies, and later mass mis- and dis-information campaigns. The "Alternative Facts" named by Kellyanne Conway in 2017.

The Liberal Party became the political wing of the Murdocharchy, just as the Republican Party has,
fed by SkyNews or Fox News and in Oz, backed by owning 70% of the print media.

We know Murdoch's ideology & position in detail - he controls the IPA, they trumpet his position.

His father was one of the Founders, he's continued to be involved & lionised there. The IPA membership list is held very closely and, hypocritically for a group dedicated to "Freedom", keep their donors secret. Murdoch was one of the "honoured guests" fawned over at the IPA's 70th Anniversary in 2013.

There'd be no Trump without Fox News.
There'd have been no BRexit without Murdoch in the UK,
nor would Thatcher have destroyed Britain's public infrastructure & society without the Murdoch press.

Australia would have far better public infrastructure & be much farther down the road to Renewables.

We know from the "News of the World" (Levenson) inquiry, that Murdoch deeply corrupted
UK politics, police, probably the public service, and possibly Intelligence services.
He'll have repeated that everywhere, but without a Parliamentary Inquiry, we'll never know.

Murdoch, quite openly, indulges in "Regime Change" & undermining democracy,
forcing Far Right conservatism into countries where it can be made stick.

The idiotic Liberal Party marched to his tune fed by Sky News after 2010, losing members at an alarming rate,
becoming less popular at every election,
now returning to pre-1946 irrelevancy, dysfunction and internecine warfare.

I think Murdoch retired with his new wifey (#5) on to his super-yacht because he'd won the war,
and the world has yet to notice.

The NBN was just collateral damage, a cherry on top, of sweeping Labor from office in 2013
and reversing all the Climate Change initiatives.

As Vince noted, and saved his monopoly on Cable TV, pushing his propaganda uncontested via FoxNews-lite.

Links

NBN is ridiculous: MurdochRupert Murdoch thinks a national broadband network will be a great thing for his pay TV provider, but says mobile tech has overtaken the need for the NBN.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/nbn-is-ridiculous-murdoch/o7hlmmbn9

Rupert Murdoch: NBN a ridiculous idea and climate change overblown
News Corp owner says broadband network not needed and Australia 'shouldn't build windmills and all that rubbish'
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/13/rupert-murdoch-labors-nbn-was-ridiculous

Foxtel: Broadband's good for business; News Corp: We're not as big as you think
https://mumbrella.com.au/foxtel-we-think-broadband-is-good-for-business-171401

Democracy overboard: Rupert Murdoch's long war on Australian politics
Kevin RuddAustralia has become a dangerously complacent country, dancing to the reactionary tune of the Murdoch press
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/democracy-overboard-rupert-murdochs-long-war-on-australian-politics

the abuse of monopolistic media power.

The latter, in particular, is perverting our national politics,
undermining the public commons on which the nation can conduct a balanced policy debate on our national future.
The Murdoch media has mutated to become a cancerous growth on our democracy.

Rupert Murdoch's empire was built on a shrewd understanding of how media and power work
1 Nov 2023
https://theconversation.com/rupert-murdochs-empire-was-built-on-a-shrewd-understanding-of-how-media-and-power-work-214218

Rupert Murdoch, a kingmaker in GOP politics, enriched himself as he poisoned America
22 Sep 2023
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/22/media/rupert-murdoch-reliable-sources

Power and scandal: how Murdoch drove the UK, US and Australia to the right
22 Sep 2023
He built a global conservative media empire, but the phone-hacking scandal and Dominion libel action almost undid the divisive mogul
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/21/power-and-scandal-how-murdoch-drove-the-uk-us-and-australia-to-the-right

Rupert Murdoch: Elite Outsider
09 Aug 2024
Journal of Australian Studies, 76 references
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2025.2495894?af=R#abstract

QUARTERLY ESSAY 43
Bad News
Murdoch's Australian and the shaping of the nation
Robert Manne
Extract
Sep 2011
https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2011/09/bad-news/extract

The Australian is in my view the country's most important newspaper.
Under Chris Mitchell it has evolved into a kind of broadsheet perhaps never before seen here.
It is an unusually ideological paper, committed to advancing the causes of
neoliberalism in economics and neoconservatism in the sphere of foreign policy.

Its style and tone are also unlike that of any other newspaper in the nation's history.

The Australian is ruthless in pursuit of those who oppose its worldview -
market fundamentalism,
minimal action on climate change,
the federal Intervention in indigenous affairs,
uncritical support for the American alliance
and for Israel, opposition to what it calls political correctness and moral relativism.

It exhibits distaste, even hatred, for what it terms "the Left," and in particular for the Greens.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Australia, we need to talk... [Apologies to Waleed Aly]

The results of the 2013 election need to be explained:

How could the Liberal/National Party win when some of its major policies weren't costed, as required by it's own legislation? Especially as each policy by itself had previously helped them to decisively lose an election.

How did not just one, but three, major policies of the Liberal-National Coalition (LNP) not get costed by the PBO (Parliamentary Budget Office) under the rules of Howard's "Charter of Budget Honesty".

It gets worse, there have since been two independent audits into the operations of the PBO, and the failure to cost all major party policies before and after the 2013 election is ignored.

These three policies were worth $1B- $10B / year each:

Border Protection (including we discovered later, "boat turn-backs" and extra patrols)
Direct Action - an abandoned plan to pay major polluters for their carbon emissions.
NBN, National Broadband Network.

NBN exposed on The Project [i told you so]

You tube: NBN exposed on The Project [i told you so]
17-Jan-2018
Apologies in advance for not reformatting.

Election 2016: it's ALL about the Economy. If not a Real NBN now, when?

Election 2016 will be a watershed decision for Australia.

We're in trouble, deep trouble, and nobody is talking about it. "Jobs and Boats" is a side-show, the Good Times are well and truly over: we need to address hard questions or we'll be hammered.

If you think 8 years on from the GFC, still with record-low interest rates, heading down to 1%, signals anything but a fragile economy on its knees, facing "falling off a cliff" from the slightest nudge, you haven't been paying attention... If this were a plane crash, we're in the last few hundred feet while the 'pilots' are working hard to avoid it, while over the PA they're saying "we have a slight problem".

The key to our future is "The New Economy". The chief enabler for it is simple: Fast, Real Broadband, everywhere. Any technology that buffers, 'breaks-up' pictures/voice or has long delays is not 'Real Broadband'. The NBN matters to our future now, more than at any other time.

Deflation, Housing Bubbles and Sacred Cows

Contrary to the Political party's dictate, there is no Revenue or Spending problem in Australia. There is however, a lack of honesty, debate and courage, the willingness of our Pollies to broach hard subjects and engage in a meaningful three-way conversation: voters, conservatives and progressives.

There's $120 billion of Revenue that Political Parties choose not to collect or discuss, yet they claim we have a $37 billion 'deficit' which they say will increase "as far as the eye can see".

It doesn't have to be this way.

Questions to the Government on the NBN: why are you hiding important figures?

Questions on the NBN I'd like to see asked in Parliament Question Time, or posed directly to Turnbull and his Ministers by Mainstream Media:

Cost to the Taxpayer:

What is the cost to taxpayer, as shown in a Budget line-item, of the NBN so far?
What is the expected on-Budget cost to taxpayers of the MTM-NBN when fully rolled out and upgraded to the promised levels already made? Is that 2020 or later?

Quality of NBN Investment:

Since when is an IRR of 2.7%-3.5% better for an investment than 7.1%?
Just what are the nominal & CPI-adjusted monetary values of each investment?
Despite multiple attempts, the Liberals have yet to offer any convincing evidence that the 2013 Business Plan was deeply flawed. It was well ahead of all its financial milestones, whereas the Turnbull legacy is a litany of successive upwards revisions, to around double the number taken to the 2013 election.

Funding:

Why haven't the 500,000+ Self Managed Super Funds with $600 B assets, looking for long-term, high-quality investment, been offered a large ($30B) 15- or 20-year NBN Bond?
That not only takes the funding pressure off the Government and hence taxpayer, it actively transfers or shares Risk with willing investors and simultaneously provides an important financial sector with a perfectly targeted investment vehicle. They are patient investors looking for guaranteed returns and stable, dependable growth businesses.

Rollout Preferences:

Why haven't any of the ~10 M affected subscribers been offered the option to contribute directly to the increased costs of Fibre vs HFC or Copper Pair/VDSL2? Even on the inflated and manipulated MTM figures, the CapEx (not Peak Funding, the actual cost), per line is $2,300 for FTTN and $4,400 for Full Fibre. (Table 8: CPP by technology, page 67)
Why haven't subscribers been given the option to pay $1,250 towards Full Fibre, repaid over 3-5 years?
Requiring people to put their hands in their own pockets conclusively demonstrates "value in use" and their "willingness to pay". We don't have to take anyone's word for it.
At a stroke, this would remove all the future Copper service upgrades, reduce the Capital Requirement, provide a commercially significant priority order for rollout and make the 65% of taxpayer-voters who want Real Broadband very happy.

The MTM-NBN rip-off: saving $250 Million costs the taxpayer $125 Billion.

Related links. This was originally a comment on a previous post.

There's a point related to hidden OpEx costs which makes a nonsense of Cost-Per-Premises of "nbn ltd":

the bulk of maintenance costs will be spent on the Copper Pair network. [50% of all? FTTN 50% higher?]

Where is that in the CPP costings?
That, for me, makes these company documents not 'business' but 'political', they are misleading figures.

MTM: the Road to Nowhere. Waste on a truly grand scale.

The widely reported Feb-2016 Australian Infrastructure Plan, resulted in a piece on The Register ("Calls for sale - in pieces - to promote competition, plus reveal of bush services' costs").

This is a repost of my comment, and a couple of follow-ups (here and here) in response to a comment claiming a 'Fail', copied below.

Two good friends contributed off-line feedback:

Just like buying a power tool. A good one last a lifetime and a poor one lasts for a couple of sessions with it.

I'd phrase as: Professionals find it cheaper to buy & maintain expensive tools that JFW’s (Just Works), not a throw-away for every job.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually gets the basics of network design and deployment. So many people think in the ultra-short term rather than in the medium to long term. Every dollar spent now saves potentially hundreds in the future when it comes to network design and deployment.

It's the difference between buying a cheap TP-Link router and a Cisco router for business. One might last a year, the other will last a decade.

Things I don't understand about NBN Economics: how does $1,500/premises become $4,500?

I can’t figure out the basic cost equation of the NBN.

If it’s costing ~$1,500/premise to install new fibre, how does the full cost become $4,500?
What does the extra $3,000 buy us?

The POI’s (Points of Interconnect) and transit network, the network operations centre, the provisioning & billing systems and what else? But these are common costs across all networks, it cannot be them.

FTTP costs: 2017 nbn co Corporate Plan (pg 53) Browfields: $4,411 Greenfields: $2,608. [Aug-2016]
Why does it cost $1,803/premise more for 'Brownfields' connections? It's 50% more than the pre-2013 costs. Where did these new costs come from?

There is a difference between ‘passing’ and connecting premises, so what proportion of the $1,500 is 'passing' and 'connecting'? That's hard to find and doesn't account for a three-fold increase.

Edit: Population Sources added at end, 27-Aug-2016.
Edit: Fibre cost-estimate Sources added at end, 20-Feb-2016.

Fast Start to 2013 Broadband posts

Primer: A fast start to Stevej-on-bband, pre-election 2013 posts

Taking on Three NBN Memes of the Mainstream Media
Why you want Fibre to your premises
A longer version of “Why Fibre?”: Problems with the Coalition Plan
A pitch for “Fibre to the Farm”
NBN Financials: Hidden costs of a VDSL Fibre to the Node network
Copper vs Fibre - The Rivers of Gold Scenario: What if NBN Co does better than forecast?
Sanity Checks of Turnbull 2013 Plan: too many questions, never addressed by business journalists
Unpicking Coalition Claims: failing the Sanity Checks

Is the real Coalition NBN plan going to need CapEx of $20.5 billion or $35.6 billion, a 75% increase on their first estimate??

Stevej on NBN

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Another view of 2013 Liberal's "Kill the NBN" policy: maintaining Foxtel's political influence, and the conservative propaganda channel

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Australia, we need to talk... [Apologies to Waleed Aly]

Friday, March 30, 2018

NBN exposed on The Project [i told you so]

Monday, June 27, 2016

Election 2016: it's ALL about the Economy. If not a Real NBN now, when?

Monday, June 20, 2016

Deflation, Housing Bubbles and Sacred Cows

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Questions to the Government on the NBN: why are you hiding important figures?

Saturday, February 20, 2016

The MTM-NBN rip-off: saving $250 Million costs the taxpayer $125 Billion.

Friday, February 19, 2016

MTM: the Road to Nowhere. Waste on a truly grand scale.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Things I don't understand about NBN Economics: how does $1,500/premises become $4,500?

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Fast Start to 2013 Broadband posts