Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Telstra’s recent announcement that it will slug customers $2.20 for paying their bills in person, or in cash, is a shameless exercise in profiteering that will discriminate against people in rural and regional Australia. From 14 September this year Telstra will charge a $2.20 administration fee for each bill payment made by mail or in person at a Telstra shop or an Australia Post outlet unless an exemption applies. In addition, existing credit card payment processing fees will increase to one per cent of the payment amount for Mastercard, Visa and American Express and to two per cent of the payment amount for Diners Club, plus GST.

For some people, face-to-face customer service is not only their preference; it is their only option. Personal service is still an ethic in rural and regional Australia. Go into any small business in my electorate and you will be welcomed. Pay your bill in cash and you will be even more welcome. Regrettably, this is not the case for Telstra customers who choose to pay their bill over the counter and who prefer the convenience of face-to-face customer service. They will incur an inequitable penalty. Certainly, many residents throughout my electorate of Barker will be unfairly targeted under this move. There are large areas of my electorate where broadband internet is simply not available. For many people their only option is unreliable dial-up internet, which of course incurs a cost.

Thousands of rural and regional residents in my electorate can only dream of the fast and reliable broadband service which just does not reach them now and never will under the National Broadband Network, thanks to the Rudd government’s cancellation of the Howard government OPEL contract. Many older people in my electorate do not own a computer, and I for one appreciate receiving their carefully penned, handwritten and mailed letters. What a pity Telstra does not. Ours is not a wealthy electorate. Indeed, we are close to the bottom of the list in per capita income. Many older Australians do not use a credit card. These Telstra charges will only serve to increase their disadvantage.

I have a real concern about how this will affect self-funded retirees and other elderly residents who have been hard hit by the economic downturn and are already struggling to keep pace with a rising cost of living. The charge for paying your Telstra bill in person has angered many consumers in my electorate. They ask me: since when has cash become not legal tender to pay bills and hence incurs an extra fee? They tell me that they do not pay an extra fee for buying a litre of milk with cash. Nor should they pay extra for paying a Telstra bill with cash or a credit card. To pay bills over the internet is not an option for many of my rural constituents, thanks to the Rudd government’s cancellation of the Howard government OPEL contract.

Telstra says that these charges are a commercial decision and further says that the increases are consistent with industry practice. It is a very strange industry practice if that is the case, because I know of a heap of shops in my electorate that do not charge anything on credit cards. In fact, it is very rare to actually find a business that charges extra to use a credit card. Applying consistent industry practice might apply when you have a level playing field of service. There is no such playing field in my electorate. Black spots, where mobile telephone service cannot be reliably received, persist in many places. I call on the Rudd Labor government to use its power under the Australian Constitution to squash this outrageous fee immediately. I believe that it could be squashed under the telecommunications power of our Constitution. I also believe that it is unconstitutional to put a charge on using cash, and it is about time this government woke up to the fact that this is an outrageous fee being imposed by Telstra and did something about it now.