Dark ages in the sunshine.

A couple of weeks ago in the Norfolk Islander newspaper, Martin Snell wrote an article about the positive attributes of fibre optic networks - and who could disagree?  Martin believed that some members of the Assembly were moving to block the commitment made by the previous government to SPIN.  Happily, Martin is my neighbour and so I gave him a call and we discussed the matter.  Firstly, the Government remains committed to the SPIN project.  The project would deliver fibre optic Internet technology to the island.  Whether or not the company responsible for delivery delivers, is another matter and understandably out of our immediate control. 
The question that I have raised is no different to the Liberal v Labor National Broadband Network question being played out on mainland Australia. (A program which we are not included in.)
On being elected to the Assembly and being able to "get some answers" it appears that there is no business plan to accompany the commitment.  There appear to be some vague commitment made by Telecom NZ and there is unsecured projected gaming revenue that I do not believe will result in an amount  needed to "pay for" SPIN.  So - where will the money come from?  No one wants to talk about that.  If you are a country of 20 million people with billions of dollars worth of natural resources, then even without a business plan, you have a cushion.  Norfolk Island does not have that luxury.  I understand that the previous government took a gamble, we have to be prepared to deal with the shortfall in funds while we pray that the gamble pays off, and it may.  It would be foolish however, to think that 700 working people will be able to pull this off without some pain.  I believe that my role as a Member of the Assembly is to highlight and debate issues, not blindly follow the leader - and the other 8 Members would expect no less!  Please feel free to contribute and I thank Martin for putting pen to paper, and even better - his name.