Paul McGovern is horrified, scandalised, that Telecom is going to use its windfall profits from the sale of the Yellow Pages in its perception of its own best interest. Following the AAPT debacle, good money is to be sent after bad, and in true Telco fashion, they're trying to buy into infrastructure because Telstra treats them as well in Australia as TCNZ treats TCL here. There's no hypocrisy in business, speaking out of different sides of your mouth depending which side of the Tasman you are on is par for the course.

Regrettable, but I care less about this than a quote attributed to David Cunliffe (the Minister following the Telecom party-line on peering, ie, it is complex, but more of than in another post)
Privatise the profit, socialise the risk.
If this is truly Cunliffe's opinion I'm more than scandalised [UPDATE: Fortunately I have the wrong end of the stick, see Paul's comment]. As a repetitive and vocal advocate for structural separation, I agree, but the rewards of capitalism are for those who take the risk so the quote should be:
Socialise the certainty, privatise the risk
And be assured that glass and RF are certain. Until there's some kind of quantum signaling that removes the need for ducted or free-space RF, they will be without risk.

The services that run over those carriers, perhaps bearers is the better term, thats where the risk, and properly, the profit, reside. Roads haven't fallen into obsolescence as new vehicles and services have developed, nor will fibre or frequencies.

Collectively we have RF as a commons, the faux scarcity and illusion of "interference" has allowed the State to grant itself a role, in collusion with the comfortable incumbents of broadcasting and telecommunications in regulating and making revenue from these collective public goods That time must surely be over as private properties have failed to deliver Government the policy outcomes they have sought.

Government, local and central need to approach the next generation of infrastructure as they did road and now do with rail and electricity lines. Local government builds, manages and operates roads, sewer and water pipes. The new pipe is fibre, the new reticulation, the new transport lanes.

Intra-city fibre to the councils, inter-city to central government. Incumbents are not excluded from continuing their stove-piped service/infrastructure model, any more than books shops are banned while the council operates a library. If they think they can do it better, their decision. But the availability under RAND conditions of fibre to anyone who has the wherewithal and complies with the "fibre code" may make that vanity uneconomic.

We owe no protection to Telecom or any other private enterprise, they are risky, and that is why they are rewarded. We provide the shared infrastructures, they compete on them.

Public certainty, private risk, structural separation.