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

The level of lack of comprehension that underlines Senator Hutchins’s understanding of this matter is just extraordinary. The Australian government has ensured that, if Telstra supplies a school with a standard telephone service, the government’s price control arrangements require Telstra to offer that school the standard line rental charge. That does not seem to be a point that has got through to the Labor Party, but I am very glad to have had the opportunity to disabuse them of the assumption that they have made in asking this question. It is very clear that the universal service obligation does work and certainly does provide Australians with the services they need.