Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. If the government has been unable to guarantee the provision of an essential service like a payphone to towns like Taroom, Cootamundra, Jerilderie, Bombala, Severn and Corrigin, what other services can Australians expect to be slashed in coming years? With Telstra’s already announced plans to slash thousands of jobs in rural and regional Australia, won’t a privatised Telstra be forced to continue cutting services in these areas? Isn’t it true that Telstra’s payphone plans are just the first wave of service cuts that we can expect from the fully privatised Telstra? Will the minister now table the map and the list of the 5,000 targeted phones?