Stuart Corner
Thursday, 12 June 2008 15:05
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 4
The Government, through the ACCC, has already had two goes at modest forms of separation: accounting separation of Telstra, and when that did not work, the current operational separation regime. Both were difficult to develop, onerous to implement and manage and onerous to comply with. And, according to the ACCC operational separation is not working.
In a Senate Estimates hearing earlier this month, ALP senator Kate Lundy asked ACCC head Graeme Samuel: "In the ACCC's view is the current operational separation regime that applies to Telstra an effective mechanism for promoting equivalency between Telstra and its competitors?"
He replied: "I can give a short answer to that or a slightly longer one. The short answer is probably no. We continue to receive complaints of conduct that suggest that the objective of equivalence, which was the objective of the regime, is not being achieved. There have been some instances of conduct since the regime's inception which, while it is not clear they breach the operational separation plan, do not promote the objective of equivalence which was the fundamental objective of the plan in the first place.
"In relation to the other objective of transparency, there is some additional reporting that the regime provides. However, this has been of limited benefit and is at a highly aggregated level. I guess, in summary, we would have to say that the regime is fundamentally unduly complex. There is a lot of discretion left to Telstra. There are limited self-regulatory mechanisms and unduly convoluted processes to implement any corrective action if a problem is identified."
The whole of the
May 2008 edition of the Telecommunications Journal of Australia is devoted to the topic of structural separation and in it, Tony Warren, Telstra's executive director regulatory affairs
likens the concept to the 'bogeyman' "created to scare children into behaving...When facts and rational argument fail, we turn to fear: 'If you go outside without me, the bogeyman will get you!'"
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