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Aust Treasurer urges Telstra to keep jobs in Aust By AAP January 14, 2004 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Aust-Treasurer-urges-Telstra-to-keep-jobs-in-Aust/0,139023166,120282676,00.htm
 Treasurer Peter Costello today urged Telstra to do all it can to secure up to 450 IT jobs, under threat of being exported to India by IBM. Telstra and IBM have extended a deal under which IBM manages and develops software applications for Telstra. IBM said that to be competitive the work will be carried out by its Indian and Australian operations, but the company hopes to retrain and redeploy as many Australian workers as possible. Costello told ABC radio that Telstra should do its best to keep the jobs in Australia. "That's why I say Telstra ought to look at that situation very carefully and they have to have a very good reason to show that they can't find adequate Australian employment opportunities and Australians to fill them," he said. Opposition communications spokesman Lindsay Tanner said Telstra was one of the most profitable companies in the world and must be more accountable. "Telstra is a government-owned organisation that still is largely a monopoly and it makes all the profits in Australian telecommunications," he told the ABC. "It's a privileged position and Australians are entitled to expect some degree of social responsibility in return for that privilege." Tanner said Telstra had plans to send all of its IT activities off-shore and the federal government should intervene. "Telstra has plans to essentially send almost all of its IT activities offshore, a couple of thousand jobs, a lot of them in Melbourne, will be lost as a result of Telstra's activities," he said. "If it is allowed to gut our IT sector, that will have a lot of negative consequences for Australian industry."
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