Button up Burgess!

Stuart Corner
Monday, 11 June 2007 08:11

Opinion and Analysis

Telstra motor mouth, Phil Burgess, really has gone too far in his xenophobic rantings against Singapore, whose national carrier just happens to own Telstra's main rival.

With the Optus led G9 proposal gaining traction in Canberra, Telstra appears to be resorting to increasingly desperate tactics to stop it. The latest reports have Burgess saying: "We're talking about turning over Australia's only nationwide telecommunications network to a consortia run by the Singapore Government. That's a government that executes people, number one, and doesn't allow competition in its own country. It's unbelievable."

Well, there is competition in Singapore, admittedly not to the same extent as Australia. But, really, what has Singapore's policy on capital punishment got to do with telecommunications?

Don't get me wrong. I am no supporter of capital punishment. It's abhorrent, even of the likes of Saddam Hussein, but for Burgess to bring it into this argument is not only wrong, it's foolhardy.

May I remind Burgess that he, his boss and a whole bevy of Telstra's top executives also come from a country that executes its citizens: 53 of them last year and 22 this year so far, according to Amnesty International, far more than Singapore.

OK, so he can't help that, but Telstra and its board could have chosen not to invest in a country that also executes its citizens, and in fact has one of the worst records in the world. According to Amnesty International,  "In 2006 91 percent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and the USA."

Based on public reports available, Amnesty International estimated that at least 1,010 people were executed in China during the year, although, it says "these figures are only the tip of the iceberg. Credible sources suggest that between 7,500 to 8,000 people were executed in 2006."

This is the country into which Telstra last year pumped $US234 million for 51 percent of leading real estate website, SouFun.  Not only did it brag about taking a key position in a burgeoning market, Telstra said the deal was a stepping stone into the wider China market. "The investment will yield relationships and experience in China from which further opportunities will emerge."

If Burgess wants to maintain any shred of credibility, Telstra should sell out of SouFun immediately.