Telco reform bill passes Senate

Renai LeMay
Friday, 26 November 2010 14:30

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Labor's controversial legislation to break up Telstra and restructure the telecommunications sector was approved in the Senate this afternoon, in a long-awaited move that the Federal Government has been pushing for for more than a year.

The bill '” first introduced into parliament in 2009 '” provides for the long-awaited structural separation of Telstra's retail arm from the rest of the company, but has been amended to reflect the agreement between Telstra and NBN Co on how the telco will transition its customers onto the National Broadband Network as the fibre is rolled out around Australia.

In addition, the legislation, according to Labor, will strengthen the regulatory access regime to provide more certainty to telcos, streamline the anti-competitive conduct regime, and strengthen consumer safeguards such as the Universal Service Obligation and the Customer Services Guarantee.

It has been the subject of fiery debate in parliament several times over the past year, including an especially vitriolic period over the past week as Labor, facing a Coalition decision to reject the legislation, wooed the Greens and independents to get the legislation over the line.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy immediately welcomed the move, labelling the bill 'an important microeconomic reform' that would transform the nation's telecommunications sector and 'correct the mistakes of the past two decades'.