IN a climate of adversarial politics, it is refreshing to see good ideas getting proper consideration.
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When the national broadband network was first mooted, then premier David Bartlett suggested using the existing power pole infrastructure to run the cables to homes.
This was rejected by the company charged with rolling out the NBN, which opted for the more expensive, and problematic, underground option.
Only 32,000 Tasmanian homes have access to the NBN, with 168,000 homes still to go.
The reality is that pre-election promises by Labor overinflated progress and gave home owners unrealistic expectations.
With the rollout behind schedule and struggling to stay on budget, Premier Lara Giddings refloated the power pole option with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
To everyone's credit, except the state opposition, this less expensive and faster option is under serious consideration and Aurora is assessing the potential cost.
Early assessments indicate that it could be rolled out through Tasmania with a saving of nearly $100 million, and this may be a solution for other towns and cities interstate.
It may not be the Rolls-Royce underground option, but with the vast majority of homes serviced by overhead wires the reliability is as secure as existing electricity supplies and there is easy access in the event of a problem.
This is the sort of proactive thinking that we need from our politicians, and the negative reaction from the state opposition was disappointing.
The biggest issue would be jobs with Visionstream, which is overseeing the underground rollout but struggling with the cost.
If the overhead option has merit, then surely many of the Visionstream contractors could be swapped to that project or concentrate on newer suburbs where power assets are already underground.