Australia's mobile black spot program was a partisan money hole

One in five new mobile phone towers built with Australian government money did more for telcos than for coverage-craving folk living in regional areas. That's the conclusion of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), which has assessed the government's Mobile Black Spot Program. Funded to the tune of AU$385 million ( …

[Disk0]

If you didn't vote for this government, you're not supposed to benefit from what they do with your taxes, right?

[Oengus]

No Surprises here

A public company taking "Free" money from the government and not providing what the government expected. The horror...

[Peter Galbavy]

Re: No Surprises here

A public company taking "Free" money from the government and not providing what the public were led to believe. The horror...

There, I fixed it for you...

[Adam 1]

the $220 million question

Why wasn't there suitable eligibility criteria for the program?

[Tannin]

Balls to the partisan notion

There is no evidence presented here that the program was in any way partisan. While there are, of course, isolated urban blackspots, the vast majority of area without coverage is, of course, in rural districts. Off the top of my head I can't think of any genuine rural electorate which not a rusted-on conservative stronghold.Is there even one rural seat held by Labor or the Greens? I don't think so. Given that, you would expect something like 90 or 95% of the funding to go to government-held seats, which is exactly what happened. On this evidence, there is nothing to see here, move along please.

* Note 1: I'm not saying it wasn't partisan. Indeed, if it was fair it might just have qualified as the first and only program this notoriously unfair, mean-spirited, revenge-obsessed and very partisan government has ever run. (Well, possibly the second such. Doubtless there is at least one other. Somewhere. I can't actually think of one, but I admit the possibility.) I'm simply making the point that no evidence has been presented here to show that the black spot program was in any way partisan.

Note 2: We should, however, consider the various rural independents. From memory, during the period under consideration there were two: Bob Katter in Queensand and Cathi McGowan in Victoria. You would expect that their electorates would be, on technical grounds, just as deserving of network expansion as the various surrounding (mostly) National-held electorates. Did those two get their fair share? Or were they punished for not voting Coalition? (As, in fact, outed Liberal Sophie Mirabella claimed had happened with health spending in Benalla because she wasn't there to fill the pork barrel. Not that you'd want to take anything Mirabela says as truth, of course.)