James Riley
Thursday, 11 March 2010 14:08
IT Policy -
Regulation
Page 1 of 2
The Rudd Government's long-held plan to structurally reform the telecommunication sector is in jeopardy, with the legislative package likely to be narrowly rejected by the Senate.
Victorian Family First senator Steve Fielding has indicated he will not support the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill at this time.
The Bill is to be debated in the Senate this afternoon and is expected to go to a vote early next week. A spokesman for Senator Fielding told iTWire he would vote with the Coalition against the reforms if it were held today. Government was unlikely to enjoy his support before there was positive progress in the Telstra negotiations with the NBN Company and more detail was released from the Government's NBN implementation study.
The Coalition has already announced that it would oppose the reforms. It remains implacably opposed to the forced, legislated break-up of Telstra, but says it was open to considering the reforms to the telecommunications access regimes if the punitive measures against Telstra were removed from the Bill.
With support from the Greens still solid, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy needs both Senator Fielding and South Australian independent Nick Xenophon to vote with Government in order to ensure its passage. Without Senator Fielding, the package in its current form is sunk.
Senator Xenophon has been broadly supportive of the telecommunications reform. Though he has amendments he wants to put forward – and he has been in negotiation with Senator Conroy's office this week – the changes are at the edges and he told iTWire he is likely to support the bill.
The Coalition has hardened its position against the reform bill, largely because of the punitive measures in the bill aimed at splitting Telstra in two. With an eye on Telstra's 1.4 million shareholders, the Coalition says it will not support anything that it says destroys the value of the company.
