Gillard makes tech key part of re-election bid Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has indicated technology-related issues will be at the core of her bid for re-election this year. In a letter penned for The Sunday Telegraph, a newspaper whose 600,000 Sunday buyers makes it Australia's biggest-selling organ, Gillard outlined her vision for re-election. The letter …
In my job I come into daily contact with people on centrelink payments (unemployed, single mothers, disability pensioners). I can't recall the last one I met with who didn't have a smartphone of some sort (apple, Samsung or HTC). Tech may be expensive, but mobile plans are easy to get with most people not realising how much they are actually forking out over time.
On a related note, a standard landline package from Telstra that includes most calls is $80 per month ($960) per year. You can get a SIM card with unlimited calls to all Australian fixed and mobile phones and 6Gb do data per month for $300 per year. Even if you bought an iPhone 4, you'd still be ahead in the first year if you did away with the landline.
In reality, smartphone apps for centrelink is a good idea.
> Gillard also described how Australia increasingly competes against emerging Asian economies, and wrote “We can't win this economic race without new technology and better skills, so we are rolling out the [National Broadband Network] NBN and expanding our training system.”
Except that the NBN has been crippled by speed tiers. The 2012 NBNCo Corporate Plan predicts that 50% will connect at 12/1Mbps on fibre - most likely slower than 4G.
"...most likely slower than 4G."
Except when:
1) Your mobile cell is congested. See: Australian telcos and populated areas.
2) The above doesn't even matter because your house is in a dead zone.
3) You want an actual usable download allowance without remortgaging your kidneys.
I like how you spin providing consumer choice as "crippling" the network. Well played. Early indications are that take-up of the higher speed tiers is much higher than predicted, but let's wait and see what actual long-term take-up rates are before we condemn the entire network, shall we?
As they were simply a base level for determining profitability.
As you well know having been informed on multiple occasions. The majority of users are taking up the 100Mbps plans as you also know.
Really I do hope this is your day job, you spend so much time spreading the misinformation it would be a pity if you were doing it for free.
“Understandably you don't want a Centrelink queue, you want a smart phone app to get you the help you need and that help has to work with your lives today,” the PM wrote.
There speaks a person who has never had to stand in a Centrelink queue. As a recently graduated OAP, the last thing I need is an app. Never having previously dealt with C/Link, I was appalled at how slow the wheels grind. At a certain C/Link in BrisVegas, I plan on waiting 30+ minutes in the queue to get to the 'triage nurse' to ask me what I want, then 45+ minutes before my name is called to see someone. It matters not what day I turn up, nor what time.
Julia, how about more Centrelink staff that know what they're talking about? An app will only give you the same obfuscation as their web site, but on a smaller, harder-to-read screen.
Disclaimer: The Centrelink staff that I've dealt with have been (mostly) kind, caring and knowledgeable, but woefully run off their feet.
Harrumph, (and get off my lawn, Julia)!
Retired IT Phart
"possibly the only thing that would get her re-elected is....actually I can't think of anything."
I can. He is called Tony Abbot. We have the absurd situation where the single biggest electoral asset that Julia has is Tony, and his biggest asset is Julia. Both are probably scared stupid that the other party has a leadership spill. Perhaps the politicians we get we deserve, but what desperate mortal sin are we guilty of to deserve this mob of idiots?
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