Coalition should get out of the way: Tanner

James Riley
Sunday, 01 November 2009 16:27

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The Coalition had 11 years to fix competition problems in telecommunications and did nothing, and should now get out of the way and let Government reform the sector, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said.

Delaying the passage of reform legislation until next year would serve no purpose, and would just delay the introduction of lower prices and better services.

"There has already been too much delay, and Australia has lagged behind most equivalent economies for too long," Mr Tanner said in an exclusive interview with iTWire.

"Businesses and ordinary people out there are entitled to ask why it is (the Coalition), who spent years doing very little and allowing Australia to languish in the Dark Ages are now trying to stop the new Government from solving the problems in the sector," he said.

Though Government won an important battle in the Senate last week to have its telecommunications bill considered later this month, Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin may yet seek to have a contingency motion passed that would delay the bill until February.

Senator Minchin wants the Government's implementation study looking at the National Broadband Network to be completed before the Senate looks at the legislation. Government says the implementation study has nothing to do with the structural industry reforms the bills seeks to achieve.

"The regulatory approach that we are proposing was flagged in the discussion paper that was announced in early April," Mr Tanner said, "so there has been ample time for discussion and deliberation on these issues."

Mr Tanner told iTWire the Coalition did not have a coherent plan for telecommunications was simply being obstructionist. The Nationals, he said, did not make sense on the issue. The Nationals have said they would vote against the legislation when it is put this month, but would vote for it next February.

"To give (the Nationals) their due, they understand the issues better than someone like Senator Minchin, who seems to regard competition as a dirty word. But they are an anachronism. They’re all over the place."

"They huffed and puffed about the privatisation of Telstra when there was a Coalition government and ultimately did nothing about (reform in the sector)," Mr Tanner said.

"What we are dealing with in part now is the consequences of privatising Telstra and creating a giant private monopoly."

With Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Mr Tanner is responsible for the implementation of the National Broadband Network plans. But he says the telecommunications reforms were required to improve prices and services in the sector regardless of the NBN.

He did not believe the reforms would become complicated by the looming Federal election, saying they were a part of a long-term strategy for the sector that included the NBN roll-out – which would take in several election cycles.