Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Can the minister confirm that two of the 5,000 payphones to be cut by Telstra this year will come from the Wollongong TAFE campus? Is the minister aware of these comments by a student, Ms Denise Temple, who attends the Wollongong TAFE:

I am a single mother with two small children and a grandchild. I do not own a mobile phone and do not have the funds to support one. I am at the mercy of Telstra; the removal of public phones will leave me unable to contact my children, grandson and the people that care for them. This is extremely unnerving as it will result in my inability to fulfil my education, reducing opportunities for further employment.

What does the minister have to say to students like Ms Denise Temple? Why has the minister given Telstra a green light to hang up on people like Ms Temple who depend so much upon Telstra payphones as a lifeline?

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

I thank Senator Forshaw for raising a sensible issue about payphones. The government has taken a very proactive view of understanding what are universal service obligation payphones and what are otherwise profitable payphones in a revamped policy that relates to them. I am very happy to outline to the Senate what may be available to Senator Forshaw’s constituent.

Rather than hanging up or giving green lights, the government are actually on the side of consumers, and in June this year we increased Telstra’s obligations in relation to the removal of payphones. We also increased the responsibilities of the regulator, ACMA, in monitoring Telstra’s obligations. Telstra is now required to undertake much more formal and stricter consultation processes. It is required to identify all of its universal service obligation payphones in regional and rural areas and to rewrite its USO standard marketing plan for payphones that sets out clearly what its obligations are. Considerable progress has now been made with these initiatives.

It is very important that people look on Telstra’s website for the payphone locator to see whether the payphone that they may have a concern about is a USO payphone or not. It is relevant to know whether there is more than one payphone in any particular area and it is certainly relevant to know what you can do about it. Telstra and ACMA have each now established hotlines to take inquiries about payphones. ACMA has also developed internal procedures for escalating and managing any complaint about a removal. I certainly urge Senator Forshaw’s constituent to make a complaint to the appropriate place and have those issues looked at.

The important thing about educational institutions, seeing this is the particular issue raised, is this: if Telstra has earmarked an unprofitable payphone for removal and it is a USO payphone, restrictions apply. Telstra is required to make payphones reasonably accessible to all Australians no matter where they live or work, or study in this case. For educational institutions there are further options whereby Telstra will consult with the institution and discuss options for any payphones surplus to its USO obligations and requirements, such as the possibility of rental phones. In a number of cases educational institutions have utilised these options to maintain unprofitable payphones on campus that are surplus to Telstra’s USO requirements.

We all know that payphones are vital for people in certain parts of rural and regional Australia where they may not be able to use a mobile phone, and we have put in place very stringent requirements to ensure that payphones are reasonably available to all Australians irrespective of where they live. In particular, if it is a USO payphone the requirements have been considerably strengthened. Before Senator Forshaw asks his supplementary question, I urge him to urge his constituent to take the proper procedures to complain about it.

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I thank the minister for the compliment, if not the answer. It is nice to receive pleasantries from a fellow labour lawyer. I ask a supplementary question. Why has the minister allowed Telstra to rip payphones out of schools, TAFEs and universities? Why will the minister not require Telstra to keep these payphones? How many more Australians will have their safety put at risk and be cut off from family and friends before the minister finally acts to stop Telstra’s attack on our most vulnerable citizens? Minister, how do you expect Ms Temple to make a call to the hotline if there is no payphone available for her to use?

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

I suppose I should ask rhetorically why Senator Forshaw, after 10 years in this place, cannot understand the first part of the primary answer to his question, and has to ask the same one again. The really interesting thing about this is that, if Australians had to live with Labor’s plans on telecommunications, payphones would be about all they had because they would have no broadband, no modern form of communications and we would be living in the horse and buggy days of telecommunications, and you would need a payphone on every street.