Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Is the minister aware of reports today about the closure of Telstra call centres in Cairns and Maroochydore, with the loss of around 180 jobs? Is it true that these employees were told by Telstra yesterday, the day after the T3 prospectus was released, that the centres were to close and that they would all lose their jobs just before Christmas? Wasn’t this callous decision affecting 180 families in two regional centres taken by Telstra in pursuit of their policy of high revenue sales and minimising the number of Telstra locations? What does the minister have to say to these workers and their families about why they are being sacrificed by Telstra this Christmas?

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

Thank you to Senator McLucas for the question. I share her disappointment to hear of Telstra’s decision to close two regional call centres, one in Cairns and a second one in Maroochydore, and that 83 staff in each call centre will be affected. The government never likes to hear about job losses, particularly in regional communities. The matter has been raised with Telstra, and they have advised that all affected staff in Cairns and Maroochydore will receive full redundancy benefits to assist them to find other employment, either internally or externally. That includes assistance with career planning, financial planning and advice, preparation of CVs, and interview skills and assistance with both internal and external job searches.

The job cuts are part of Telstra’s much publicised transformation program, which was announced in November 2005. The transformation program involves reducing its workforce numbers by around 10,000 over the next five years as a result of the introduction of new technologies, improvements to business systems and increasing competition. This of course includes rationalising call centre operations and adjusting resources to remove duplication, to improve efficiencies and to reduce costs. Naturally, as Senator McLucas would appreciate, we are disappointed by this decision, particularly in regional centres where these cuts will be felt more deeply and other suitable jobs may be more difficult to find, even though of course we are experiencing record low unemployment rates.

Having said that, it raises the question as to where Labor’s credibility is when it comes to workforce issues. Let me remind the Senate that when Labor was last in power unemployment was at 10.9 per cent and a million Australians were unemployed. Over the last 9½ years we have seen 1.8 million extra jobs created in Australia. Almost a million of those 1.8 million jobs have been full-time jobs. In relation to Telstra jobs in particular Labor has a pitiful record. Telstra staff numbers fell from 90,000 to 76,000 between 1990 and 1992. I ask you: who was the communication minister at that time? It was none other than Mr Beazley. Since then, the competitive framework set by the government has allowed more than 150 new providers of telecommunications services and, according to the International Telecommunication Union, that now employs approximately 77,000 people. Work commissioned by ACMA has estimated that the government’s competition reforms, commenced in 1997, have increased employment by about another 23,300. Labor has nowhere to go in criticising this government on jobs. Labor has nowhere to go, and this government’s record on jobs stands without blemish. This government will not be flip-flopping; we will continue to look after the consumers of Australia.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that these two centres have been the recipients of Telstra awards for excellent performance? Can the minister guarantee that the work performed by staff at the two call centres in regional Queensland will not be transferred overseas or outsourced?

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

If I can borrow from Senator Minchin’s earlier answer: this is semantic nonsense. The most important thing to understand here is that there are now 150 new telecommunication providers providing extra jobs in telecommunications and there is a very proper program to look after the redundancies of Telstra employees, which I have outlined. Before Labor comes in here and tries to cast stones at this government I remind the Senate that Labor practically drove this country to the brink of bankruptcy, with one million unemployed people, small businesses thrown on the scrap heap and very few people with any opportunity of getting a new job. Wake up to yourselves and realise that this is part of a redundancy program with the proper safeguards in place.