Carol Brown (Tasmania, 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. I refer the minister to her answers to questions in this chamber relating to broadband on Monday of this week. Is the minister aware that Telstra has publicly stated that the minister misled parliament nine times during her answers? Is the minister aware that Telstra does not advocate the abolition of the universal service obligation, the customer service guarantee or untimed local calls? Is the minister aware that Telstra has also publicly accepted the need for regulated access on any fibre to the node network? Was the minister ignorant of Telstra’s public views on these issues when she provided her answers on Monday of this week, or did she deliberately misrepresent these views? Will the minister now correct the misleading statements she made to this chamber on Monday of this week?

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

Thank you to Senator Carol Brown for the question. I noticed Senator Conroy trying to give her a bit of a tutorial before she asked the question. Look, I am very pleased to deal with this question. Telstra’s plan is to abolish the telecommunications-specific competition laws. Telstra, of course, is reacting to increasing competition in the sector and, if it were to succeed in that, Australia would be the only country in the OECD not to have a telecommunications-specific regime. I can only go on what Telstra itself published in its actual brochure that it sent around to all its shareholders. This is a direct quote from Telstra:

We must ALL tell them to get rid of the regulations that only apply to Telstra and stifle investment in broadband infrastructure.

That is a direct quote. What might they be? What might be the safeguards that only apply to Australia? Let me tell you, Mr President, that they include the 22c capped untimed local calls across Australia, they include the priority assistance with life-threatening health conditions and they include bill assistance for low-income earners, including pensioner discounts.

The interesting question here is not what Telstra is doing but what the Labor Party supports. For several weeks now, the Labor Party has simply refused to rule out that it is backing a campaign to abolish the entire telecommunications competition framework and the important consumer safeguards like priority assistance, 22c capped untimed local calls, bill assistance and the Network Reliability Framework. Obviously, the Labor Party does not know what it can possibly do with the telecommunications regime. It has not ruled out abolishing these important consumer safeguards such as priority assistance. I hereby challenge the Labor Party: say what you will do; say what you will rule in and what you will rule out.

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

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Conroy!

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

Whatever safeguards and laws Labor intend to abolish, I hope they have the gumption to come clean with Australian consumers and identify them. I challenge Senator Conroy to tell the Australian public what specific regulations Labor will abolish. We know that Senator Conroy has very clearly said that regulatory change is needed now. We know that Labor support Telstra’s campaign to roll back the telecommunications-specific regime. We know that Labor in fact support Telstra, who say:

We must ALL tell them to get rid of the regulations that only apply to Telstra and stifle investment in broadband infrastructure.

They include these important consumer safeguards. It is important to note that, in this pamphlet Telstra have sent out to shareholders, they have made no distinction between what regulations they will rule in and what regulations they will rule out. The Labor Party have not ruled in or ruled out any of these regulations. So the Australian public are entitled to believe that the Labor Party have hitched their wagon to Telstra’s campaign to roll over all competitors, to roll back consumer protections and to go after the little people who depend on this government to stand up for them when it comes to giving them telecommunications services.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the minister to Telstra executive Phil Burgess’s quotes today, that there is a ‘disgusting lack’ of broadband in Australia caused by ‘the federal government’s nonsensical regulations’. Why won’t the federal government follow Labor’s example and make the regulatory changes needed to deliver a fibre to the node broadband network for Australia?

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

Thank you for the supplementary question. Whilst I would never make this comment myself, I have noticed that there has been some commentary that has referred to Mr Burgess as a ‘Telstra windbag’. But the important point here is that Australia now has over 3.9 million broadband subscribers and that we rate very strongly when it comes to the take-up of broadband—now No. 2 in the OECD. The important point for the purposes of this debate is that the Labor Party are backing the campaign by Telstra, the biggest telecommunications provider in this country, who want to roll over consumers’ rights and roll back regulation.