• Jock Given
• Inside Story

Photo: Mike Bentley/ iStockphoto.com

08 April 2009Fresh back from overseas, a prime minister makes a stunning telecommunications announcement. And the historical parallels don't end there, writes Jock Given

KEVIN RUDD might not like the comparison. Nearly ninety years ago, prime minister Billy Hughes returned triumphant from an overseas trip and announced a public private partnership to construct a nation-building communications network. He urged the members of parliament to take their courage in both hands, and to have a little faith in the future of this country. It was not in any timid, shirking spirit that our pioneers went out and made Australia what it is. They had faith though they had far less reason for its exercise than we have. The plan, then, was for the Commonwealth to take a bare majority stake in a company that would build and operate a direct wireless telegraph service between Australia and Britain. This service would compete with the undersea cables that had been the only form of electronic communication between Australia and the rest of the world since the opening of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872 that linked to a cable from Java...

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Photo: Mike Bentley/ iStockphoto.com