Turnbull, Conroy wrangle on Telstra reforms

James Riley
Thursday, 28 October 2010 15:45

IT Policy - Regulation

The Opposition had misunderstood proposed telecommunications regulatory reforms and was wrong in claiming that any deal between Telstra and NBN Co would not be scrutinised by the consumer watchdog, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says.

The reintroduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2010 - introduced in the House last week - was required for the Heads of Agreement between NBN Co and Telstra to be finalised, Senator Conroy said.

Amendments proposed by shadow communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull to ensure the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) scrutinised the deal were redundant in the re-introduced bill.

"The Bill already includes provision in section 577A for the ACCC to scrutinise and approve the competitive impacts of the Agreement between Telstra and NBN Co. This Agreement would need to be incorporated into the undertaking that Telstra lodges with the ACCC," Senator Conroy said.

"The Bill authorises entering into the agreement and associated conduct for the purposes of trade practices law only if the ACCC accepts the undertaking. This removes any need for multiple authorisation inquiries, while still ensuring appropriate scrutiny of the arrangements."

But Mr Turnbull told iTWire the focus of provisions related to ACCC scrutiny were narrowly written to provide oversight to the structural separation of Telstra and did not adequately give the watchdog powers to investigate the impact of an agreement on competition in the sector.

The proposed agreement between Telstra and NBN Co related not only to the transfer of customers to the National Broadband Network fibre connections, but also the decommissioning of the copper network and a commitment by Telstra not to use its HFC cable for voice or data.

"That agreement, which is clearly very anti-competitive, will be authorised by statute and therefore will not be able to be considered by the ACCC," Mr Turnbull told iTWire.

"In this area where competition is so important and where much of the argument for the NBN is a claim that it will promote competition - against an understanding that it creates a giant fixed-line monopoly owned by the Government - we just can't see any justification for removing this from the ambit of the Trade Practices Act (now called the Consumer and Competition Act,)" he said.

Senator Conroy claimed Mr Turnbull was well aware that his amendments were redundant in the new Bill and that the shadow spokesman was simply trying to delay and frustrate the passage of the reforms.

"Malcolm Turnbull has been briefed by my Department on the Bill so he knows his amendments are unnecessary. The Opposition are only interested in delaying and obstructing the Bill," Senator Conroy said.