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Cornered! Minchin's attack on Samuel unwarranted
Cornered! Minchin's attack on Samuel unwarranted | Minchin's attack on Samuel unwarranted |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 14 October 2009 | |
  
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On the contrary, when asked if he agreed with the Telstra view that splitting up Telstra would: "impede the vision of the national broadband network, reduce competition, harm consumers and upset shareholder value," Samuel replied: "It's not for me to do that, that's up to the [Senate enquiry] committee to consider the presentations made by Telstra, shareholders and many other parties." The point he did make, and one that it is perfectly appropriate for the chief regulator to make, is that he believes separation of Telstra to be the only way to solve the perennial problem of ensuring fair competition in the telecoms sector. "The view of the ACCC for many years is that the reforms proposed in the legislation...are long overdue, are necessary, are reforms that infuse the whole concept of competition into the telecommunications sector, an infusion that itself, is long overdue, since about 1992." Samuel was asked again if he saw separation as the only solution. "Telstra's argument today was that the IT system of Telstra was already being upgraded so the company can prove all its customers are being treated equally. Can you see any commercial negotiated solution to this, or the only solution in your view from a competitive standpoint is structural separation?" Again, his answer was that, from the ACCC's standpoint as regulator the answer is no. "We have been debating this issue for years and years and years...The fact of the matter is we have plugged holes in the dam wall in the sense of we have had in place a series of legislative attempts to deal with competition which have shown to have been deficient in so many different areas. "The ACCC, the National Competition Council, many experts in the area have said the only way to infuse true competition into Australian telecommunications is to remove that vertically integrated structure existing with Telstra, and to structurally separate." Minchin's view on this is that "Samuel's continued public commentary runs the risk of providing evidence of bias against a company he is entrusted to regulate and reducing public confidence in the ACCC as an impartial competition regulator." If he really wants to attack Samuel he should try and counter Samuel's central argument: that the ACCC's experience over many years trying to regulate Telstra using the legislative powers available to it has led to the conclusion that the only solution is separation of Telstra. And perhaps suggest another means of solving the problem. There are arguments against Samuel's view of how the problem of regulating Telstra should be solved. According to Telstra the claims that it is able to exploit the current regulatory regime are false. Telstra says in its submission to the Senate enquiry that: "The Explanatory Memorandum claims, without any supporting evidence, that ... 'the use of regulatory and legal processes appears to be one way in which Telstra maintains [its] dominance'. In reality the problems with the current regulatory regime are far more complex than the simple view that it is 'all Telstra's fault'." I'm sure if Minchin wanted to debate that question with Samuel, Telstra would be happy to provide him with some ammunition.
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