Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I strongly support the member for Franklin’s motion and commend her for raising it. I note that the member for Braddon in his contribution cited the notice of motion that he had on the Notice Paper that he put forward and that I was seconding. It just shows that a whole lot of people in this place are responding to the anger, the disappointment and the dismay in the community and across the electorate. I can associate myself with all the comments of all the members who have contributed tonight and beyond tonight, because everybody is at one. It is something that has really ignited the whole community.

I am a Telstra customer and I have got my bill, and in the bill it said a couple of things. It called it an ‘administration fee’. I call it a penalty. It is not an administration fee. There is a whole thread running through our common law system that does not allow penalties. There are ways around it, I know, but through our system penalties were not allowed for loans and all sorts of other things. So, yes, it is couched as an administration fee, but it is clearly a penalty. If you are front up in a certain number of ways in paying your account, then you are penalised—you have to pay $2.20. That is the first thing I want to say. It is not an admin fee; it is a penalty, and penalties are just not on. It should be removed.

The other thing in the letter I got from Telstra with my bill said, ‘Exemptions may apply’. It did not say that they will apply; it said they may apply. That means that people have to jump through hoops to get them. Yes, it says, ‘Exemptions may apply, including for pensioner concession card holders. For more details see over the page.’ Well, it was not clear to me exactly who would get them. I think that it is offensive to think that, if you pay a bill in certain ways that are just the informal social intercourse that you have, you are going to be penalised for it. It is just bizarre.

With indulgence I would like to read the letter that I sent to Mr David Thodey, the CEO of Telstra. I said:

I read recently about your new approach to customer service and the appointment of customer ambassadors to better serve Telstra customers. I will take you at your word and ask that you put customers first, vis-a-vis their bills, and that you immediately retract the new billing fee scheduled to be introduced next month. As the federal member for Page, an electorate with many people on low incomes, I can tell you that there has been an immediate and widespread angry reaction to this new billing policy. The very idea that people are billed for Telstra services and then they have to pay for the privilege of paying their bill in certain ways goes against any concept of fairness and customer service.

And it does. It is just not fair. That is why it struck a chord with everybody. It is just not fair. Australians rise up against that or rail against it.

I will quote from a couple of the letters—and there were a lot—that I received from people. I said to people, ‘One of the banks went through a process of removing some of their fees and penalties after a whole lot of people complained about it; people power. That is what we have to do. If you are a Telstra customer, yes, complain through your local members’—and many people are—‘but also complain directly to the organisation. You must take it up with them directly. If you cannot access them, then send your complaint to me and I will send it off.’ One person who was concerned about reports of Telstra charging the community to pay their bills wrote:

Not all people have access nor the ability to pay for or use the internet. Is this ethical of a utility serving the means of commu-nication for our vast country? I pay my bills on time but would despise being charged extra to do so. Not all people have the opportunity, ability, access nor capability to select another provider as an alternative means of payment.

I note that one of my local newspapers, the Daily Examiner, has also been active in this area. It has been running a campaign, along with the community, to try to get Telstra to change its mind. I have had one person in my elector-ate of Page express support for it as a shareholder. They are the only one.

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