Merged Australian Politics / Australian election

Nope.

Mobile coverage is a major problem in a lot of the Blue Mountains. For a start, if you go over the edge of the escarpment, mobile coverage cuts out - total black spots all along. And that was with 3G/4G. 5G barely makes it to us from the local towers, and cuts out if you walk behind a decent sized tree. All that means locals too far from a tower or in a small valley all have zero mobile coverage. Non-locals who go bushwalking unwisely and fall off rocks or break their legs while abseiling, etc. (and they do, with monotonous regularity) can't call for help. We have been begging for clifftop repeaters for years...nothing from either political party.

Just use the existing copper wires? Sure...no. Run over poles and underground through iron-rich sandstone, they get flooded and are prone to deterioration over time. Bad quality copper voice lines were not good for ADSL 20 years ago, let alone streaming now. We also get lightning storms, which take out our ancient exchanges and induce spikes through the aerial cables and wet, ferrous ground that blow up connected modems, routers, etc. Everyone here has about half a dozen old modems that have been zapped this way. With long copper cables to the furthest houses, signal quality is noticeably poorer for them. Also, some dwellings are kilometers from the nearest phone pole in mobile black spots (truly off-grid), and it is prohibitively expensive for them to have one crappy copper line run to their house (Telstra will do it, but it runs to tens of thousands of dollars).

So the solution for here is fibre-optic. It is cheaper than copper, very high performance, is immune to water and lightning spikes, and can be run dozens of kilometers with no signal loss. It can be literally buried in a dirt trench if needs be. All it takes is THE POLITICIANS GETTING OFF THEIR ARSE AND MAKING NBN INSTALL IT! Which they have promised for a decade now. It was going along OK, until it all came to a grinding halt when Malcolm Turnbull decided that it would be cheaper to integrate with the existing copper lines than take fibre to the premises. That was a decade ago... So we wait.
Add in Tony Abbott’s inane proclamation that nobody in Australia would need more than 25mb speeds!

But you are right. Fibre to the premises is the fastest technology now and will be capable of reaching Gigawatt speeds. Albo has committed an extra $3 billion to accelerate the roll out.

I suppose I’m biased though. One of my daughter’s in an executive with NBNCo.
 
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Just in case anybody was laughing at Americans for voting Trump back in . . .
The odds are still against him. The Coalition needs to win a record number of seats, and the Teals are certain to feature strongly. There was barely be a preference from the Teals and Greens flow to Dutton.
 
Just in case anybody was laughing at Americans for voting Trump back in . . .
I expected exactly this. Murdoch controls much of Australia's media. Dutton has to do nothing more than say something and they will do the rest, tirelessly and relentlessly.
 
The odds are still against him. The Coalition needs to win a record number of seats, and the Teals are certain to feature strongly. There was barely be a preference from the Teals and Greens flow to Dutton.
Unless the libs win back seats taken by the teals, whoever is PM after the election is likely to be heading a minority government.
 
Unless the libs win back seats taken by the teals, whoever is PM after the election is likely to be heading a minority government.
I agree. I simply can’t see Dutton getting enough support to form a minority government.
 
I agree. I simply can’t see Dutton getting enough support to form a minority majority government.
I think that is what you were trying to say. He needs more support to get a majority government. It would be interesting to see what happens if the Liberals win more seats, but the Teals hold the balance of power. Who will they say is allowed to form government? Will it be whoever is prepared to make the biggest bribes concessions to them? Or will they support Labor no matter who has the largest party?
 
Dinner be fooled by the electoral college. In terms of actual vote it was very close and was really about a few swing states.
In spite of preferential voting, it is not much different in Australia. The winning party seldom gets much more than 50% of the 2PP vote. It all comes down to the marginal ("swing") electorates. (Thank goodness the Senate uses PR).
 
I think that is what you were trying to say. He needs more support to get a majority government. It would be interesting to see what happens if the Liberals win more seats, but the Teals hold the balance of power. Who will they say is allowed to form government? Will it be whoever is prepared to make the biggest bribes concessions to them? Or will they support Labor no matter who has the largest party?
No I’m not. Look up “minority government”. Educate yourself.

A minority government is one which falls short of enough seats to rule in their own right, but gets support from others to get over the line. Gillard ran a minority government.
 
No I’m not. Look up “minority government”. Educate yourself.

A minority government is one which falls short of enough seats to rule in their own right, but gets support from others to get over the line. Gillard ran a minority government.
You think there will be a Labor PM after the next election? Is that what you meant?
I know what a minority government is. And yes, the Gillard government was one such example.
 
You think there will be a Labor PM after the next election? Is that what you meant?
I know what a minority government is. And yes, the Gillard government was one such example.
Well why are you talking about anyone forming a majority government? No, I don’t believe you do know what a minority government is.
 
Well why are you talking about anyone forming a majority government? No, I don’t believe you do know what a minority government is.
In other words you are trolling me. You have not explained what you believe. I doubt I will respond to future such posts in this thread by you.
 

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