tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40813462012-05-29T11:10:29.208+10:00Random thoughts (when I get around to it) on politics and public discourse by David Havyatt.David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.comBlogger1070125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-84839899267845002932012-05-13T14:16:00.000+10:002012-05-13T14:16:58.683+10:00

This has been an amazing week. At least the SMH got it right in yesterday's editorial when they noted the absence of anything amounting to policy. Senator Conroy's media releases covered the NBN bit. The SMH however saw fit to say nice things about the Abbott commitment to teaching foreign languages. I won't here go into the fact that such teaching would be advanced by the NBN. The question

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-62792325767989577662012-05-10T17:08:00.000+10:002012-05-10T17:08:03.207+10:00

If Chicken Little runs around and says "The sky is falling" it could be reported in three ways. The first way would be "The sky is falling". This would be inaccurate. The second would be "Today Chicken Little claimed that the sky is falling." This would be a completely accurate report but of little value. The third would be "Today Chicken Little lied. Little claimed that the sky is falling.

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-59517390023311678762012-01-27T21:17:00.000+10:002012-01-27T21:17:11.901+10:00

So that's twice in recent times the Labor PM has saved the Opposition Leader from the consequence of a gaffe over indigenous affairs. The first was Kevin Rudd helping Brendon Nelson over the disaster that was his address in the Apology by going across the chamber to get Nelson to accompany the elders into the Parliament. Then yesterday we had Julia Gillard ensuring her security detail

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-10838529300966475642012-01-23T13:21:00.000+10:002012-01-23T13:21:34.440+10:00

Anyone observing the latest chapter in the Kodak story would do well to read Clayton Christiansen's The Innovator's Dilemma. Kodak, you see, invented digital photography but didn't invest for fear of cannibalising the film business. This the only technology choice where this occurred. There ought to be a saying somewhere, if you don't cannibalise your own business you will just end up road

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-9496012419840961952012-01-12T17:52:00.000+10:002012-01-12T17:52:22.455+10:00

Anyone in Australia thinking of the idea of primaries should take a bit of a look at what happens in the US. This ad is run by Newt Ginrich to destroy the credibility of Mitt Romney. But Ron Paul goes one better and just attacks Newt and Mitt. But when you follow these links you find a really monumental pro-Ron Paul piece which argues that a non-interventionist Foreign Policy as proposed

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-11174463575740090922011-12-31T16:42:00.000+10:002011-12-31T16:42:40.376+10:00

The Iron Lady is a disappointing film, but not for all the reasons outlined in John Huxley's column today. It wasn't merely "revisionism", and the long-term effect of Thatcher on Britain is something on which rational intelligent informed people could disagree. Far from being toned down "Thatcherism" it demonstrated how her downfall within her own party was determined by th excesses to which

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-24931461856420771162011-12-09T08:03:00.000+10:002011-12-09T08:03:28.536+10:00

As reported in CommsDay today I will be commencing a gig as Temporary Special Adviser to Senator Conroy starting Monday. Writing a blog is inconsistent with the role. While some of my esoteric pieces on the nature of religion, the global sweep of history and heterodox economics might be legitimate independent comment, those who know me well know I would find it hard not to stray. It does leave

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-2095385197958473132011-12-07T15:15:00.000+10:002011-12-07T15:15:07.610+10:00

Nice little piece today from Ross Gittins on suggestions for a "relational business charter". In part it goes to the same territory as my comments on the corporation. But only in part. The question is more how would you get firm's to pursue the objectives given the myth of "maximising returns". The answer is more that the public policy debate needs a better understanding of the role of

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-23425583133528024172011-12-07T14:55:00.001+10:002011-12-07T14:58:41.576+10:00

I have spent the last two days at the conference of the Australian Society of Heterodox Economists. The conference re-established a core point - the heterodox are united by what they stand against rather than what they stand for. What they stand against is the dominant paradigm of the neo-classical core of economics. But even how much they stand against this varies. Universally they would

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-23000722423281231862011-12-07T08:44:00.000+10:002011-12-07T08:44:13.445+10:00

I just moderated a weird comment on a post about the University of Sydney rebranding. The comment made reference to a supposed "secret society" called the "Integralia." Further research has thrown up a short item in Honi Soit that provides good evidence that the existence of the society is an organised hoax. The hoax is centred on its own wikispace and seems to be actively centred on a

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-35680127962868736642011-12-01T08:15:00.000+10:002011-12-01T08:15:18.474+10:00

Thanks to Catherine Middleton for alerting me that the story on easing foreign ownership restrictions in Canada is premature. The relevant Minister did indicate that change is underway but will not be unveiled till 2012. He interestingly is reported to have said "the government expects cellphone companies to offer rural Canadians the same services as those living in cities." Canada faces the

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-61986980498184562822011-11-30T10:47:00.000+10:002011-11-30T10:47:22.955+10:00

Launching yet another book on the current malaise of the ALP Kevin Rudd has provided his own analysis. Much of this is confused, and what he calls for is indistinct. He starts by asserting a distinction between Labor good and the other side evil as; A Party that has painted most of the nation’s history on a wide and expansive canvas; its economic reforms, its social innovation, the centrality

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-86180227614404644812011-11-29T11:41:00.000+10:002011-11-29T11:41:15.489+10:00

In my many and varied writings there is one issue that is central, and that I very seldom discuss directly. That issue is an understanding of the Corporation as an economic and political institution. My understanding of the Corporation informs my overall "socialist" bent - wherein I read the "socialisation of the means of production etc" to not mean social ownership but directed to social not

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-66580402888428014472011-11-29T09:11:00.000+10:002011-11-29T09:11:01.400+10:00

An interesting report today that the Canadian Government is considering reducing the restrictions on foreign ownership of telcos. The article neatly points out how the current ownership limit would impede new entrants into the market. The discussion has some relevance to the yet to be undertaken (or revealed) analysis of competition limits to apply to the Australian Digital Dividend spectrum

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-77168154124498430992011-11-25T09:43:00.000+10:002011-11-25T09:43:39.607+10:00

Fascinating item in the AFR today (behind paywall) in which the new chief executive of Primus rants about the need for the NBN to do more for phone service. According to this CEO the NBN only provides for one telephone and to get the existing telephones to work requires "extensive rewiring". That to me is complete and utter nonsense. From the ATA part of the NTU the customer gets exactly the

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-76299548600950978652011-11-23T17:37:00.001+10:002011-11-24T00:23:22.379+10:00

Since Maha Krishnapillai announced that he was leaving Optus everyone has been wondering "where is he going?" We were only told it was a commercial role in a non-competing organisation. Today it has been revealed in CommsDay that he is off to Australia Post. It was an interesting way to find out - given that the only other news coverage in the AFR and The Register seems to also have been

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-3816312640373548102011-11-16T08:59:00.000+10:002011-11-16T08:59:14.858+10:00

I gave this paper at CPRF 2011 last week on Competition Policy for the Digital Economy. My core thesis was that policy makers refer to "competition" as a policy goal with little understanding, and what understanding they do have needs to change. The paper traces the evolution of "competition policy" from its anti-monopolisation US origins, through the regulatory state of the post-Depression (

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-20210767577681245902011-11-14T09:29:00.000+10:002011-11-14T09:29:32.685+10:00

I reckon everyone who talks about deregulation of the Labor market should read this Ross Gittins piece. As he says; Here's the point: the labour market has always been highly regulated. It remained highly regulated under Work Choices and it's still highly regulated under Fair Work. It's always likely to stay highly regulated for a simple reason: unlike all other markets, the labour market deals

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-55135847108228595602011-11-13T14:02:00.000+10:002011-11-13T14:02:56.446+10:00

I had the opportunity to attend the Armistice Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial on Friday (at the same time as my number two daughter was on a battlefields tour where her great grandfather Walder fought in WWI). I finalised the iTnews column by e-mail from my phone just before it started - and would like to think that one day I could write a speech as good as the one the PM delivered

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-57176383243714539442011-11-13T13:45:00.000+10:002011-11-13T13:45:07.994+10:00

My column for iTnews this week is based on the ACMA's Digital Dividend Spectrum Tune-Up. In it I use some data put up by DBCDE to speculate on the values that will be raised at auction. You might recall that I estimated the $A equivalent for the French 2.5 GHz auction at $458M. I also noted the Italian 700MHz equivalent raised abiout 2 and a half times as much. These are consistent with the

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-63957398220319012682011-11-03T15:47:00.000+10:002011-11-03T15:47:36.551+10:00

The Commerce Commission in New Zealand is an interesting regulator. They have an "inquiring mind" and like to think about the future and what the emerging issues could be. This contrasts with so much of Australia's policy and regulatory bodies who merely react to events. The ComCom's latest foray is their study of High Speed Broadband Services: Demand side studies Commissioner Ross

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-18946582576644069792011-11-02T09:34:00.000+10:002011-11-02T09:34:31.567+10:00

As accusations flow about when people were told of the Qantas lock-out it is pretty clear that Joyce was so obsessed with the security risk that he never really made it clear to the Government. Ultimately he was speaking in code. But Joe Hockey reckons; (Qantas has) been saying it around parliament house for the last few weeks. They've been saying it privately and publicly around parliament

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-38671569660972732482011-10-31T16:05:00.001+10:002011-10-31T16:15:49.665+10:00

It is really quite hard to come to grips with exactly what has been happening in the ICT lobbying space over recent years. Australia had three groups with a policy focus in the ICT space. The user side was represented by the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) which this year celebrated its 3oth anniversary by closing its doors. The charitable interpretation was that the

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-23834276510256972072011-10-31T14:59:00.000+10:002011-10-31T14:59:58.252+10:00

The coalition doesn't like the NBN - we know that. Malcolm Turnbull, Paul Fletcher and Barnaby Joyce go on about it. But coalition backbenchers don't like the NBN - because residents don't know when they are getting it. Government backbenchers have also been known to complain about the inadequate roll-out schedule. The public in general really wonders if the coalition can "stop the NBN."

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-63084726111810197402011-10-31T12:08:00.001+10:002011-10-31T12:08:47.744+10:00

Stumbled upon this blurb for a book on patents. looks to be worth a read if I had time...... Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0