Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Science and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I acknowledge that the minister has mentioned technicians, presence, services and hopefully some payphones, but I ask: does the minister recall comments by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vaile, on the local presence plan, when he said:

The government wants more than a marketing document from Telstra. We want a real and quantifiable plan.

How do these comments square with those of Telstra executive Ms Kate McKenzie, who stated that the plan ‘will achieve very little except more words on paper’? Doesn’t the payphone debacle demonstrate that Telstra is right, that the local presence plan is just ‘words on paper’ and that it does absolutely nothing to protect services for rural and regional Australia?