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. Can the minister confirm that Telstra is required to maintain only 7,500 payphones throughout Australia under the USO, and is not currently able to account for hundreds of these payphones in its records? How can the universal service obligation possibly provide service guarantees for rural and regional Australia if Telstra is unable to identify its USO payphones? Given that Telstra is intent on doing the absolute minimum required for rural and regional Australia, isn’t the lack of clarity in the USO an open invitation to further slash payphone numbers? When will you table the map you have asked for? When will you table the hit list of the phones to go?