Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ludwig for the question, because it is gives me the opportunity to disabuse him of the basis upon which he puts that question. I have seen some media reports on Telstra’s payphone reduction program today, and there is absolutely nothing new in them. We had a whole session on payphones recently. Telstra’s plans to remove up to 5,000 payphones were first revealed earlier this year, not recently, and Telstra is about one-quarter of the way through its program. It has become apparent that, in most cases, the removals are where there are already multiple payphones at one site. It is important to note that there are more than 60,000 payphones in Australia and, given the significant growth of mobile phone use, it is not surprising that the use of some of the payphones has dropped.

However, payphones continue to be an important community service for many people—I am sure Senator Joyce would agree with that; I agree with that—and that is why the government regulates Telstra to ensure that payphones are reasonably accessible to everyone in Australia. Telstra cannot just remove payphones from where they feel like doing so. There are at least 7,500 unprofitable payphones in Australia that Telstra cannot remove because of the universal service obligation, which I am sure Senator Ludwig would be very pleased to be aware of. On top of this, there are tens of thousands of profitable payphones that remain in operation. Obviously, there are surplus payphones in some areas of Australia that are not necessary for Telstra to meet its community service obligations, especially where multiple payphones are on one site.

Senator Ludwig is completely wrong when he suggests that the universal service obligation is not being met. It is abundantly clear that phones that come within the categorisation of universal service payphones cannot be removed because of the regulation. As you would be aware, Mr President, the government does not have to own Telstra to regulate it. We certainly do not have to own Telstra to ensure that the universal service obligation is maintained. The government will not allow Telstra to leave communities stranded without payphones and Telstra cannot do this under the current regulation, so we are committed to maintaining the universal obligation and it will not be watered down.