Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It is the word ‘scratch’. This term seems to have been deleted from parliamentary language as well. It is not so long ago—I am sure you will remember, Mr Deputy Speaker—that the National Party in particular and government members in general were not going to sell Telstra until it was up to scratch. It is not all that long ago that the President of the National Farmers Federation, Mr Peter Corish—in fact, it was on the day that the sale bill went through the Senate and I happened to attend the press conference outside the Senate doors—said the words that I am about to recall and that persuaded Senator Barnaby Joyce to support the sale. I agree with Barnaby Joyce on some things, but I think he will carry to his grave the day he voted on this issue. I understand he was new to the parliament at the time and probably under enormous pressure. I fully understand that, but so will the people he purported to represent, when this operation is fully privatised at some time in the future.

The President of the National Farmers Federation said he had a guarantee in writing that would guarantee country people equity of access and pricing levels of basic telephone services and internet services, and it was called ‘up to scratch’ at the time. Here today, we still have this argument between Telstra and the ACCC—and the government, for that matter, who are putting their little wheel in there in relation to de-averaging the pricing regimes between city and country customers.

I will give some examples. Loomberah is in my electorate—not in the bush, not stuck out in the middle of Australia—15 kilometres from Tamworth. Telstra Country Wide did the appropriate thing: they conducted a survey to find whether there were a number of customers who would be available for connection to ADSL. That was done over six months ago. The numbers were obtained. Since then, customers in that area have been told a number of times that there would be a date when they would be connected to ADSL. They have been told that the firm from which Telstra gets its enabling devices to hook up ADSL in that particular exchange has been on strike. Then they were not on strike and now apparently they are back on strike. Apparently these people are in Spain. The same crisis is happening in other exchanges in my electorate and many other electorates, but the Dumaresq exchange, the Dangarsleigh exchange and the Loomberah exchange in my electorate have been told they cannot get the equipment. Even though all the processes that Telstra Country Wide put in place have been met, they cannot get the equipment to enable the exchange to give internet services to these people.

In conclusion, many people speak about how good it is where telecommunications have been privatised overseas. I was recently in the mid-west country area of the United States. The mobile phone service there is absolutely appalling. There are so many competitors that they cannot speak to each other. For three days I could not get service while travelling. One day, when I had to get a message to someone that I was running late for a particular engagement, I went through four medium-sized towns and I could not find a phone. I went to a post office and they said: ‘A public phone? A public phone? No, we do not have public phones.’ In the end I booked into a motel to access a telephone. For people to come here and say that in the American experience the consumer is much better off—go and look at what is happening in country areas. It may well be in the city, but the sale of Telstra is—(Time expired)

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