Telstra welcomes one small reduction in its regulatory burden

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 11:53

Opinion and Analysis

Wishful thinking or Telstra trying to be conciliatory to the Federal Government? Whatever, Telstra's over-enthusiastic welcome to a minor piece of legislation was in stark contrast to the song and dance the Trujillo-Burgess double act used to kick up.

Telstra issued a press release today 24 June saying it "welcomed the Federal Government's ongoing commitment to reducing red tape," and declaring that "the reduced regulatory burden will deliver benefits for businesses and customers."

Telstra CEO, David Thodey commended the Government "for its deregulation focus" saying that "the Government's efforts to reduce the regulatory burden on business will remove unnecessary costs and improve productivity and customer service."

So what was all the fuss about? Some significant reduction in the huge volume of reporting Telstra is obliged to deliver each year - carefully catalogued during the Burgess era, and still to be found on Telstra's nowwearetalking web site ?
"Telstra faces an enormous burden from its requirements to provide a range of reports to regulators on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis," it moans, listing some 162,654 pages requiring an estimate 144,598 employee hours to produce in 2005-2006.

This was the time when communications minister, Helen Coonan, announced a review of this regulatory impost prompting one Telstra spokesperson to comment. "Each and every year, Telstra is forced to spend the equivalent of 77 years crossing t's and dotting i's to satisfy red tape rules and regulations. It would be Monty Pythtonesque if it wasn't true. Where existing red tape has mysterious or zero consumer benefit, it should be removed so Telstra can spend the time and money saved delivering customer service."

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