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

My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to Telstra’s plans to axe 5,000 payphones throughout the country, cutting an essential lifeline for many Australians. Is the minister aware that Telstra had originally planned to dump 25,000 of its 30,000 payphones and believed that it would not be prevented from doing so by existing regulations? Can the minister confirm that there is nothing to stop Telstra from slashing more than 80 per cent of its payphones throughout Australia? Is it not true that government regulations designed to ensure Telstra maintains its presence in rural and regional Australia have been shown to be completely ineffectual by this affair?

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

Thank you to Senator Conroy for the question. As usual, Senator Conroy has it completely wrong. What in fact has happened is that the government has made the supply, installation and maintenance of payphones a part of the universal service obligation that remains. We have done this because we recognise that access to payphones is a very important community facility. Under the universal service obligation, Telstra is required to make payphones reasonably accessible to all Australians on an equitable basis. This is backed up by detailed rules on how Telstra will remove and relocate payphones, as well as its service quality and fault rectification standards. Failure to comply with the universal service obligation or the rules is a breach of the Telecommunications Act and carries significant penalties. Telstra is paid a subsidy to allow it to provide non-commercial standard fixed line and payphone services. Last year the universal service obligation payment was $211 million, of which Telstra paid $142 million and the rest of the industry paid $69 million. Universal service obligation payments are based on market share.

I can inform the Senate that under no circumstances will payphones be removed from areas where the universal service obligation requires them to be. There are at least 7,500 payphones covered by the universal service obligation, and most of them are in rural Australia. Those of us who have travelled around rural Australia extensively realise how important it is that those communities are not deprived of access to their payphone.

Last week and today I met with Telstra to get to the bottom of what appeared to be a report in the Australian Financial Review that does not represent what Telstra proposes to do. Telstra is at least able to look at its commercial operations. It is certainly entitled to look at some rationalisation of payphones where there are three in one area, for instance, and where there are other services available that make the provision of a payphone simply redundant. It is important that we identify where those particular facilities are and that we make sure that the universal service obligation responds appropriately so that all those who need a phone have it.

So not only is Senator Conroy completely wrong in what he has just put as a premise to the question but Senator Conroy apparently thinks that 32,000 payphones must remain, irrespective of whether there are seven in one place and irrespective of whether most of the population in a particular locality might have a mobile phone. We need to get real here and realise that Telstra has to run a commercial operation. The government has an obligation to ensure that those who need a phone get one, and that is precisely what we are doing.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. If the government has been unable to guarantee the provision of an essential service like a payphone to towns like Taroom, Cootamundra, Jerilderie, Bombala, Severn and Corrigin, what other services can Australians expect to be slashed in coming years? With Telstra’s already announced plans to slash thousands of jobs in rural and regional Australia, won’t a privatised Telstra be forced to continue cutting services in these areas? Isn’t it true that Telstra’s payphone plans are just the first wave of service cuts that we can expect from the fully privatised Telstra? Will the minister now table the map and the list of the 5,000 targeted phones?

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

I have answered very comprehensively with the fact that this is not a concluded plan on the part of Telstra. We are determined to ensure that the universal service obligation will make sure that all people who need a payphone will have one. Senator Conroy, I am sure, would love it if Telstra had announced something of this kind. They have not. The universal service obligation is the guarantee that looks after consumers and will continue to look after consumers. We will continue to ensure that we have a robust framework that looks after the bush, not like Labor, who simply abandoned it.