The Telstra and government war continues

Telstra's clumsy attempt to buy into the Federal election campaign has prompted a predictably fierce response from the minister.

Helen Coonan is quite right, in her own words; "It could have stepped up to the plate. It could have been a leader in rolling out broadband".

Telstra could have been the world leader. Instead Telstra spent ten years doing everything it could to protect its revenues and stymie Australian Internet growth.

What really gets me cranky is throughout this entire period, the current Federal government either fully owned or had a controlling interest in Telstra. They could have fixed all of this in one board meeting.

Instead they sat on their backsides and ignored the urgings of the IT industry, farmers, small business and even Bill Gates. The only thing they did was to fully sell off Telstra at the first opportunity.

Now the Feds find themselves fighting an organisation with a near monopoly that's maximising profits by running down infrastructure and strangling competition.

Rather than blaming Telstra for this situation, Senator Coonan needs to look no further than her boss and the dills he appointed as her predecessors.

Regardless of who is the next communications minister and of what party they are from, the next three years are going to be a very interesting and difficult time for them.

At least we'll be able to say that one minister will be working hard for their money.