Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The question is not: why are we seeking to redefine something? You are seeking to close it down and dictate to companies who buy a legal wholesale service—it is legal because they have got themselves the licence—and tell them what to do. You are seeking to change the definitions in the existing bill. You are actually closing down a market. That is what you are doing. NBN Co. can only supply a wholesale service. I think even you would have to concede that. You may disagree with a definition about something else but I do not think you could argue that it is only supplying a wholesale service.

Now, if you want to talk about it being layer 2 or layer 3, I will accept that a layer 3 style service is needed when it is turned on before a RSP is part of the equation. When someone plugs it in and turns it on in their house, a little sign will come up that says, ‘You need to go and get a RSP service.’ I will accept that a layer 3 style component at the absolute minimum is necessary to tell a consumer to go and contact an RSP. If you want to talk about technology and layer 2 or layer 3, I would accept that as a legitimate criticism, although I think most people are comfortable with that.

You have to explain to this chamber why you want to dictate to a company that chooses to take out a carrier service licence that it cannot do something tomorrow that it can do today, because that is what your amendment will do. A company that could do something today will not be able to do it tomorrow because you have decided it. It could not be more anticompetitive. It is straight out of Telstra’s songbook, as I read out before. If you listened to someone other than Telstra—and I quoted the Australian Telecommunications Users Group—then perhaps you would have a slightly different perspective. I appreciate that you have been a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra for so long that you cannot look in the mirror without seeing a big orange T on your forehead. But I want you to know that I still have hope for you, Senator Birmingham, because I know deep down under that tie there is a Liberal heart beating and a Liberal heart would actually support competition.