The new head of the Productivity Commission, Peter Harris, has confessed to the AFR that he supports Labor’s version of the NBN:
…“I think the important aspect of that [is] not so much the NBN in itself but the value that it will provide to the economy through public policy change such as structural separation…the incentives really lie with maximising the utility of the network rather than maximising the profitability of the network, if I could make that distinction.”
…Mr Harris said one of the reasons so-called multi-factor productivity was weak in Australia – as it was in other Western countries – was because a broad wave of “digitisation” of the economy was still to arrive.
…“This impact is expected in, for example [the use] of 3D printing as being a way of entirely altering investment processes and production processes in some parts of manufacturing.”
“What you’ve got to have from a government perspective is to ensure there are not impediments to that quick adaptation for those kinds of lurches forward.”
QED (though Peter, you must remember that you can’t print dirt).
And the LNP (or is that AFR) response is that Mr Harris is:
“seen by the Coalition as being potentially biased in favour of NBN Co. He has faced tense exchanges in parliamentary committee hearings with Coalition MPs.”
Lose the argument so attack the man. Yeh!
