Labor must take heed of the critics

WHAT does the Gillard government fear most?

Near the top of the list is that the public will grow sceptical or even critical about its cherished National Broadband Network.

This is the reason Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was so sensitive yesterday about the OECD report. You can read this report forwards, backwards or sideways, but there is no escaping that it is critical of Labor's NBN model.

Does the NBN mean major gains to internet services? Yes, large ones. But the OECD refuses to stamp the model because it is a de facto public monopoly, devalues competition, bets on one technology and needs a more prudent financial approach from government.

Labor's problem is that it genuflects before the OECD's judgment on Australia's economic performance but faces an adverse OECD judgment on the NBN.

And Gillard Labor has tied its fortunes to this concept. The NBN is Labor's long-run policy hope. Combining vision, nation-building and popularity, it was the trump card against Tony Abbott at this year's poll.

Conroy acts from a rigid political compulsion - there is no alternative to the NBN. To admit an alternative, a superior policy, is to invite Labor's humiliation. The door is shut. That is why no independent inquiry, no cost-benefit analysis, can be contemplated. Labor has bet its reputation and its economic credentials on the NBN.

Conroy should have taken a lesson yesterday from Wayne Swan, who sanctifies the OECD report, pointing to where and how it backs Labor policy. Yet Conroy bagged the OECD because it disagrees with him. Frankly, the list of NBN critics is only growing. Labor will need a smarter defence.