For a question to which the answer is very simple, we seem to be making heavy weather of the broadband debate in Australia. This paper revisits three fundamental propositions:

1. That there are some underlying principles that should increasingly inform the structural and policy framework for broadband investment that delivers access, quality and innovation.
2. That there is a growing body of credible evidence that illustrates why broadband is the necessary condition to realise the ambitions for communication and collaboration that increasingly characterise the way individuals, organisations and communities live, work, learn and play.
3. That the increasingly robust analysis of the social and economic benefits of broadband ought to be making a more significant impact that it appears to be on the policy calculus that drives both public and private investment. 

It closes with a few predictions about the way in which the Australian broadband debate might unfold in the next period.