Originally Posted by
mikewil
Well what is your solution for transport to and from the regions? There will be many with no air service if there are no subsidies, and I am assuming you wouldn't want government running their own airline (NBN style)?
You can't just say "tough ****, move to the city then if you can't afford it". You do realise the country's economy and prosperity doesn't just rely on the east coast?
We have a huge farming industry in regional/remote areas along with many others and the people who make it happen shouldn't just be stranded without reasonable means of transport to the outside world.
People in the regions also pay the same for their access to mobile networks as those in the cities but it costs Telstra (or Optus) a huge amount more to provide that service so even instances where there are no subsidies, city folk are subsidising those in regional/remote areas. Yes I also acknowledge that these days many remote Telstra & Optus sites have also been subsidised by the government, but once again it is for the greater good of the nation.
I think we need to stop using the NBN as an example. I am glad the NBN exists. Because without it, the remote places would have zero internet access. NBNCo is a good example of government 'interference' to ensure the infrastructure is there, then let the private sector buy the bandwidth on the fibre/satellite network and sell it for a profit. Left to the Telco's alone, there would not be the extensive network that NBN has or is building toward. It was just government stupidity
(I'm looking at the Turnbull/Abbott wrecking of the original NBN by spending more money to deliver something sub-standard, would have been fine if they'd just proceeded as it was originally planned) that let it become a waste of money putting copper back in trenches instead of fibre at enormous cost for nothing more than ideological reasons - i.e. we don't want to admit the ALP were right and we were wrong, which is what a lot of politics boils down to nowadays, both ways, it's all about the next sound bite which sadly, often cripples good policy.
Even in the United States, the bastion of free-market darwinian capitalism, they still have subsidies for air services to regional areas that otherwise would not be served by the 'market'.
It's in the Surface and Air Transportation Programs Extension Act 2011 and is called the Essential Air Service (EAS) Program.