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

I thank Senator Wong for the question. As Senator Wong would be well aware, it is required by law that the prospectus must identify risks in respect of all aspects of the company’s business. It must identify risks and comply with the regimes of other jurisdictions, as I mentioned earlier, including the United States and its regulatory processes. There is a section in the prospectus that deals with all the potential risks to the company. Advice has been taken from all relevant agencies in order to ensure that the prospectus properly discloses the regulatory risks to the company.

They do include regulatory risks. In relation to the transformation strategy risks, you heard Mr Trujillo last Friday outline a five-year transformation strategy. It obviously outlines marketing and operating risks and investment and other risks. All these matters, and those agencies that have some role in providing input, do provide input into getting the disclosure correct. Investors, in making investment decisions, do need, however, to make their own assessment of the likelihood of any of these risks occurring.

The views that, for instance, Telstra has incorporated into the prospectus on possible regulatory and other risks are consistent with the company’s statements to date on these issues, and that should hardly be surprising to anyone who has been following this matter for about the past year. It is stated clearly in the prospectus, in the relevant places, that those are Telstra’s views. It remains the government’s view that, overall, the telecommunications regulatory regime and risks in relation to that regime are settled. This prospectus makes it clear that the government has in place a telecommunications regulatory regime that is going to promote telecommunications competition, promote a market that is able to provide a level playing field and encourage other operators, as well as Telstra, in respect of some of these new technologies that are being dealt with in Telstra’s transformation. Obviously these matters are disclosed also in terms of the transformation risk as Telstra upgrades its technologies.

The telecommunications regime that the government has in place does and will continue to provide appropriate safeguards for consumers. Telecommunication prices have fallen by more than 26 per cent under the government’s competitive framework. There is nothing anomalous about the regulatory regime and the matters that the government considers are appropriate to disclose in relation to the regulatory risk. The prospectus, as a result of ongoing discussions, very clearly delineates what Telstra’s views are and, indeed, what the government’s views are in relation to regulatory risk. As a result of negotiations and advice, I am advised that the prospectus complies with proper disclosure of all regulatory risks.