Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Ludwig is misleading the Senate when he says that Telstra has cut services to country people in need of payphones in particular and also that the agreement which Senator Joyce and others reached with the government over the sale of Telstra, which in fact has improved telephone services to regional areas, has been abrogated. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the services to country areas have been greatly improved since the agreement was reached to sell Telstra. In particular, the need for payphones to be retained in regional areas has been recognised and Telstra will be maintaining payphone services where needed in country areas because Telstra is required to provide a payphone service under the universal service obligation which—as I am sure Senator Ludwig knows—means that Telstra has to maintain a certain minimum standard of phone services in regional areas. In fact, there are something like 60,000 payphones in Australia. While some payphones have been removed because they were unprofitable or because there were several payphones in the one area, nevertheless, where needed, payphones have been retained in regional Australia. Payphones continue to be recognised by the government as an important community service for many people and that is why the government requires Telstra to ensure that payphones are reasonably accessible to everyone in Australia and, in particular, to people living in regional areas.

Senator Ludwig, as I said, is doing no more than getting up to the ALP’s old trick of claiming that, with the sale of Telstra, services to people in regional areas will be diminished. Nothing could be further from the truth because we have the universal service obligation, which requires that a certain basic telephone service be available to people throughout this country. In addition, we now have other telecommunications companies coming into regional areas offering services. So, in fact, the services to people in regional areas are being not only maintained but also enhanced through competition.

In June this year, the government increased Telstra’s obligations in relation to the removal of payphones. The government also increased the responsibilities of the regulator, ACMA, in monitoring Telstra’s obligations in that regard. For Senator Ludwig’s information, Telstra is now required to undertake stricter consultation processes, identify all of its universal service obligation payphones in regional and rural areas and rewrite its universal service obligation standard marketing plan for payphones. Considerable progress has been made with these initiatives, which will, as I have said, ensure that payphones are maintained where needed in regional areas. Telstra has also engaged its low-income measures assessment committee to agree on new arrangements for payphone consultation processes and complaints mechanisms. Through the enhancement of the USO process, communities can now feel assured that they can not only identify where USO payphones are located but also feel confident that they will be adequately consulted if there is a proposal to remove or relocate a payphone. While Senator Ludwig is a great proponent of the ALP’s position that the government will reduce services to rural Australia, I can say that that is not the case and reassure those people throughout rural Australia who are listening to this broadcast that Senator Ludwig is wrong and that the government will maintain and enhance the telecommunications services provided to people of regional Australia.