Telstra blasts ACCC to shareholders

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 15 April 2007 13:28

IT Policy - Regulation

Telstra has made good on its promise to rally its 1.6 million Australian shareholders in support of its lobbying campaign: it has emailed  a large number of  a letter blasting the ACCC as a "rogue regulator" and urging them to use its form letter to lobby their MP in its favour.

the move was foreshadowed earlier this year by Telstras' group managing director public policy and communications, Phil Burges, who told the Financial Review: "We know where every shareholder lives. We know how many shareholders there are in every country town, We have their addresses, we have their home numbers. We have the email addresses of over 400,000 shareholders. We are going to have the ability to sign up a lot of people on our site. And if that affects the election so be it."

In the email, signed by Will Irving group general counsel, and by Burgess, Telstra hails the recent court ruling overturning the ACCC's competition notice as "a landmark battle in its ongoing fight to protect our shareholders' investments from unfair regulatory attack."

It notes that "Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled that the ACCC failed to afford Telstra 'procedural fairness and natural justice' when issuing the Competition Notice and found it to be invalid."

Then, despite the judgement reflecting an error of procedure by the ACCC, Telstra claims the judgement as "a resounding vindication of our long-held view that the ACCC is a rogue regulator that is not serving the best interests of our nation."

Telstra then assures shareholders that it has renewed its call for the ACCC's powers to be overhauled and "will continue to vigorously pursue all avenues to protect your investments."

It also claims that "Telstra is the only company in Australia burdened by rules that undermine its ability to earn a competitive return and invest with regulatory certainty." In fact the rules are not specific to Telstra but their burden is felt most heavily by Telstra because of its unique position as the owner of the former monopoly telecoms infrastructure.

Telstra is urging its shareholders to support its cause by spending "less than five minutes" emailing their MP using "the easy-to-follow Email your Federal MP form on [its website] Nowwearetalking"; registering as a Telstra Active Supporter; talking to others about this important issue ("it less than a minute to strike up a nation building conversation: everything you need to know is at nowwearetalking.com.au").