Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to Telstra’s plans to dramatically increase the prices charged for home phone connections from $209 to $299 from 1 April this year. Isn’t it true that this price rise makes a laughing stock of the government’s promise to freeze the prices of Telstra’s fixed line costs? Does the minister accept that Telstra is able to drive a truck through the holes in the government’s price control regime? Hasn’t this price rise, along with the payphone debacle last week, demonstrated the inadequacy of both the universal service obligation and the Telstra price controls, and shown the government’s complete inability to effectively regulate Telstra?