In a statement issued this afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition, Simon Crean and the Shadow Minister for Communications, Lindsay Tanner, said the findings of the inquiry, conducted by Moree cotton farmer Dick Estens, disregarded the everyday experiences of telecommunications users across Australia.
The report, while it took issue with some aspects of the service provided to rural and regional Australia, lauded the government's responses to issues outlined in a previous report into telecommunications services. Senator Richard Alston, the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, has said the government will only proceed with the privatisation of the remaining 50.1 per cent of the telecommunications company after receiving assurances about service standards across all parts of the country.
"The Estens report will ring hollow in regional Australia," the Opposition's statement said. "Australians don't want Telstra sold, because they know services will decline and prices will rise."
They pointed to two of the recommendations of the report, claiming one stated in effect that Telstra should maintain a regional presence only when it is "compatible with Telstra's commercial interests" and another effectively claimed the government should be responsible for paying for regional telecommunications improvements.
"These findings reveal the government's true agenda - a privatised Telstra operating just like the banks, with the Government left behind to pick up the pieces," said Labor.
The Australian Democrats communications spokesperson Senator John Cherry claimed the Estens report made a good case for increasing government ownership of Telstra, rather than for a further sale.
"The case for sale of Telstra fails on three grounds - rural service standards, budgetary impact of the sale and the failure to achieve a proper competitive regulatory system for Telstra," he said. "There is no prospect of the Democrats supporting any further privatisation of Telstra while these benchmarks are not met."
I wonder how much drinking actually goes on in Canberra , because the policies of the government at times seem like those of Sir Les Patterson.