Senate report on telecoms regulatory reform tabled

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 10 September 2005 15:21

IT Policy - Regulation

The report of the Senate committee investigating regulatory reform of telecommunications has been tabled in Parliament with 35 recommendations calling for, among other things, the full structural separation of Telstra and for Telstra to be forced to divest its HFC network and its shareholding in Foxtel. Government senators rejected 31 of the recommendations outright and gave only qualified support to the remaining four.

Immediately following the tabling of the report, communications minister, Helen Coonan issued a press release launching a stinging attack on the enquiry and accusing the ALP of having "squandered taxpayer's money and Parliament's time by reconstituting the same old political set piece inquiry on the sale of Telstra." The report can be downloaded from here.