Laurie Patton

Laurie Patton is a prominent public interest advocacy and marketing/communications practitioner. He is a former political advisor, journalist and media executive. He is the NSW regional convenor for the Australian Republic Movement.

Laurie's recent articles

LAURIE PATTON. auDA reveals new governance model following government review.

auDA the body overseeing the management of our Internet domain names system has released the details of a newgovernance model. This follows areviewby the Department of Communications and the Arts that saw communications ministerMitch Fifieldgive the organisation three months to deal with a range of matters DoCA said meant it was no longer fit for purpose.

LAURIE PATTON. Sticks and stones Attempted coup at auDA flounders on disinterest.

The proposition that theres widespread member concern at the state of auDA the company managing our Internet domain names has been dealt a definitive blow. The vote at a Special General Meeting to decide the fate of three directors, including independent chair Chris Leptos, saw them retain their positions.

LAURIE PATTON. Public servants, political appointments and good government.

Earlier this week what was widely perceived as two highly political appointments to plum roles in the federal public service highlighted a need to re-examine government administration in the 21st Century. Not because these appointments were necessarily inappropriate, but because they exposed a basic disconnect. We still like to pretend we have an olde-worlde apolitical public service consisting entirely of career bureaucrats who have no political leanings or are never influenced by them. If this was ever the case, it is no longer.

LAURIE PATTON. Domain names issue closer to resolution.

Next week the group attempting to oust board directors at Internet domain names authority auDA will have an opportunity to explain in detail the reasons for their concern and their solutions.

LAURIE PATTON. The NBN wont be finished on time. Simple as that!

In my opinion, the NBN will not be a completed project until everyone has access to fast, reliable broadband. On that basis, the rollout will take us well beyond the currently projected deadline of 2020. Whats worse, it will end up having cost more than the original 2009 version and far more than then communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was told to expect when he adopted his so-called multi-technology mix model.

LAURIE PATTON. Is Telstra simply unmanageable right now?

What happens when you take a dysfunctional government corporation, privatise it, and then allow it to pretty much do as it likes? The answer to that question is at the heart of what is no doubt keeping Andrew Penn awake at night.

LAURIE PATTON. You cant privatise an organisation that doesnt make a profit!

The ABC earns around $100 million a year from its commercial activities (mainly ABC shops). Its annual operating budget is more than a billion dollars.

LAURIE PATTON. Community tv - needed now more than ever.

Last week the Government announced a further two year extension on its deadline for community television stations to vacate their free-to-air spectrum. The death knell first rang back in September 2014 when then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that all CTV licences would end in December 2015. Since then the sector has limped on courtesy of a series of last minute reprieves.

LAURIE PATTON. Facts and fiction: More on the auDA situation.

auDA the organisation charged with managing the Internet domain name space on behalf of the federal government is currently undergoing a review of its operations. As we approach a Special General Meeting to be held on 21 July 2018 I decided to throw a few pertinent questions at CEO Cameron Boardman. As Ive previously written, I simply cant see how any further public displays of disunity are helping the situation, but it is also important that we decide the future of the organisation based on facts.

LAURIE PATTON. Consultation group to help reshape Internet domain names management.

With three months to develop new processes to redress historical weaknesses the company managing Australias Internet domain names has created a broad-based consultative group to guide the process.

LAURIE PATTON. Heeding government warnings, auDA strengthens governance adding new board members

With debate continuing over Australias domain names registration arrangements, the company appointed by the federal government to oversee the process has added three highly qualified new directors to its board.

LAURIE PATTON. Whats going on at auDA? The battle over Internet domain names.

Anyone who uses an Internet domain name which means most Australian companies, educational institutions, government departments and not-for-profits should know whats currently happening with the domain names registration process.

LAURIE PATTON. Vindicated: NBN Co. boss admits multi-technology mix (MTM) flaws.

The departing head of the trouble-plagued NBN, Bill Morrow, has finally come clean. He has finally conceded that reusing Telstras ageing copper wires is creating major problems.

LAURIE PATTON: No balls. How Cricket Australia lost the media game

The on-field actions of a player created a crisis for Cricket Australia. However, its own mishandling of the affair especially in its dealing with the media added to an unfolding debacle. For years to come, world travel for Australians will involve tolerating jokes, and worse, about being from a nation of cheats.

LAURIE PATTON. Its not about the size of the population, its about where were all going to live

This week the ABCs Four Corners and Q and A programs are focussing attention on an important issue facing 21st Century Australia the size of the population. As is commonly the case with this subject, the debate is creating a fair amount of heat, but regrettably not all that much light.

LAURIE PATTON. Supporting call for innovation push highlighting the need for a focussed approach including a national smart cities and communities strategy

We need our national innovation strategy to be targeted at solving identifiable problems and assessed according to its contribution to social benefit as well as economic outcomes.

LAURIE PATTON. Setting the Record Straight The Australian newspaper publishes rebuttal to Internet Australia attacks

For former journalist and media executive Laurie Patton, spearheading Internet Australias campaign for #BetterBroadband meant becoming accustomed to the occasional sledge from the pro-NBN Co forces. However, a series of false and defamatory newspaper articles led to an out-of-court settlement and the publication of an op-ed setting the record straight.

LAURIE PATTON. Unpopulate or perish - revisiting the Whitlam decentralisation vision in a digital age.

On the 45th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam Government Laurie Patton reflects on a forward-thinking policy that deserves revisiting for a digitally-enabled world.

LAURIE PATTON. Smart people make smart communities.

Many of my friends and colleagues have remarked on how my new role as inaugural CEO of the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) is a natural extension of the work Ive been doing promoting the need for #BetterBroadband. Connectivity is the cornerstone of Smart Communities. Innovation cannot occur without it, and innovation is key to creating more intelligent cities and enriching their communities.

LAURIE PATTON. The Australian shoots the NBN messenger, as usual.

Three years ago, Internet Australia, the not-for-profit peak body representing the interests of Internet users, embarked on a mission to foster more informed debate about theNational Broadband Networkand its importance to Australia's future. It wasand is the view of our board and members that we need something better than a network deploying ageing copper wires.

LAURIE PATTON. The broadband debacle: NBN Co needs to eat its own dog food.

Whoever is in office three years from now will have the biggest ever infrastructure debacle on their hands if we don't do something soon, writes Internet Australia's Laurie Patton.

LAURIE PATTON. NBN: How many more surveys before they get it? We are not impressed!

A raft of surveys have confirmed what everyone knows. Were increasingly unhappy about the rollout of a technically inferior National Broadband Network.

LAURIE PATTON. The case for mandating governance training for NFP boards

The not-for-profit sector performs a vital role delivering services that meet important social needs. It provides a voice for some of our most disadvantaged groups and individuals. Not-for-profit status also allows organisations of professionals to represent their members under a regulated legal framework. The sector oversees the collection and expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars of other peoples' money. So it's critical NFP's are well run according to the highest levels of good governance.

LAURIE PATTON and ROBIN ECKERMANN. Time for rational, informed debate about the NBN

We believe it's time for the Government and the Opposition, and their respective sword carriers, to put down their weapons and strive to agree on a bipartisan NBN strategy that will deliver all Australians fast and affordable broadband using modern technologies and an investment strategy that balances deployment costs with the demonstrable socio-economic benefits achievable through advanced fixed broadband.

LAURIE PATTON. Turnbull's New Year resolution should be a fibre-based NBN for everyone

As we all make our New Year's resolutions, here's one for Turnbull: build us a better broadband network. It's time to allow NBN to dump copper and revert to a fibre-based model. The sooner the better.

LAURIE PATTON. Un-populate or perish rethinking the Whitlam decentralisation vision in a digital age

There's been quite a deal of media coverage lately about the need for better Internet access in regional, rural and remote Australia. Earlier in the year delegates to the annual Broadband for the Bush conference highlighted the communications challenges facing everyone living outside our major population centres while pointing to opportunities for better delivery of health services and education using emerging online technologies.

LAURIE PATTON. Essentially, our NBN is just not good enough (but please don't say so!)

...And don't tell Malcolm Turnbull, who was Minister in charge of the NBN. This weeks Essential poll found that dissatisfaction with the National Broadband Network is both widespread and pretty even across the political spectrum. Only 22 percent of respondents believe the NBN will adequately meet our future Internet requirements [http://www.essentialvision.com.au/future-internet-requirements]. For those of us focussing on Australias potential to become an Innovation Nation and whove been watching the NBN debate with increasing despair this was no surprise. Although, as you dig deeper there appears to be a well-developed appreciation of the benefits of high speed broadband underlying...

Is there finally light at the end of the fibre-optic cable?

Over the past two weeks weve seen what many of us have been longing for signs the Government has realised its national broadband network strategy is not working out as planned.

LAURIE PATTON. NBN: The Internet is for everyone

According to Twitter, #NBN ranked fifth out of the ten issues most mentioned on the #ausvotes hashtag. Ahead of immigration, marriage equality, super, jobs and tax cuts. So it is timely that we look at how we are going when it comes to providing access to fast, reliable broadband. Last week the widely quoted Akamai State of the Internet report confirmed our poor performance, ranking Australia 56th in the world on average peak speeds. Thats up four from last time, but still around 30 spots lower than we were just a few years ago. This marginal improvement is moot,...

LAURIE PATTON. Broadband: Its buggered in the bush

Last weeks Broadband for the Bush conference held in the rarefied atmosphere of Brisbanes State Library revealed just how disillusioned people living in rural, regional and remote Australia have become with the state of their telecommunications services. Chief among the concerns expressed by farmers, welfare agencies, government officials and Indigenous leaders was the limitations of their broadband access, or indeed the lack thereof.

Laurie Patton. Generalists and specialists in the Australian public service.

Why the theory of empty spaces hurts public sector performance The other day I was talking to a friend who recently retired from the public service. After a career lifetime of studied discretion he now wears as a badge of honour his entitlement to express independent views. Many of these are critical of the processes that played a pivotal part in his rise to a very senior posting. I have a number of colleagues who are now ex-job, having also held extremely high level public service roles. I enjoy hearing about their work experiences more now that they are...

NBN stars collide waiting for the Big Bang

Two stars collided in Canberra last week, but the big bang is yet to be heard.

Laurie Patton. Pirates of Perchance: How site-blocking could force up Internet fees but do little else

Last week both Village Roadshow and Foxtel finally launched court actions under the eight months old Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement)Act designed to deal with Internet piracy. The first thing that needs pointing out is that downloading video and audio content over the Internet is a not a crime as such. It is, however, in breach of the intellectual property rights of the producers and distributors. The so-called site-blocking law was passed by Parliament in the middle of last year, following a concerted lobbying campaign on behalf of the content rights holders who claimed it was a problem requiring...

Laurie Patton. Utopia: the professor, the public service, and the need for change.

In an article in The Mandarin former Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, Professor Peter Shergold, is quoted urging public servants to adapt and to show courage. http://www.themandarin.com.au/60090-adapt-die-peter-shergold-manifesto-public-service-transformation Shergold is spot on. But before things can change weneed to be willing to accept that mistakes are made, even by the best of people. Last week it was revealed that the team responsible for the Data Retention Act received a Secretary's Award for excellence. To anyone familiar with this fetid exercise that must sound like a scene from the satirical television series Utopia. As Internet Australia told...

The media, those agencies and the Data Retention Act

The medias attention this past week turned to the 61 fringe agencies trying to get access to our metadata. Many have missed the point that when Parliament passed the Data Retention Act the Government heralded the fact that it had cut the list of those able to access our private and personal information to the bare minimum. Most of the agencies asking to be added to the list now are precisely the ones that Senator Brandis told us didnt have sufficient justification, even though theyd historically had unfettered access. If any of these agencies, that include the RSPCA, local...

Laurie Patton. Data Retention: How not to introduce complex legislation.

One of my first tasks shortly after joining Internet Australia (nee ISOC-AU) was to front the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS). Our appearance at the hearing into the (Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015) came at the end of a long day of mostly opposing submissions. With our president and the head of our policy committee sitting beside me I boldly told the committee that the Data Retention Bill was fundamentally flawed and had clearly been drafted by lawyers who didnt understand how the Internet actually works. How prescient those comments have proven...

Laurie Patton. Malcolm Turnbull: NBN killer?

The ABC Online News headline on the 14th of September 2010 was pretty blunt: Abbott orders Turnbull to demolish NBN. In the article itself then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is quoted as saying: The Government is going to invest $43 billion worth of hard-earned money in what I believe is going to turn out to be a white elephant on a massive scale. Fast forward five years and the cost of the Coalitions NBN is now put at $46-56 billion, with many experts maintaining that this significantly understates the likely real cost. Confusion and disagreement reign as to how...

Laurie Patton. The metadata Bill.

The House of Representatives has passed, with amendments, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014. The Bill requires telcos and Internet Service Providers to store certain information (called metadata) for a period of two years. Metadata is essentially the information that reveals the parties to phone and email communications and other things such as the time and duration of a communication. It does not include the content of the communication. When collected by law enforcement agencies this information will be analysed by sophisticated software using algorithms that have been developed over many years and shared...

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