Aust Govt gets into "body" building with $87,000 grant

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 23 June 2008 11:13

Opinion and Analysis

The government wants to give consumers a “stronger voice” on the topic of telecommunications issues and is helping establish a “peak body” from consumer organisations to do so.

Back on May 1, Australian Federal Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, indicated that he supported the efforts of consumer representatives seeking to establish a “peak telecommunication body representing the diversity of consumer interests”.

 At the time, Senator Conroy said that “Working together to empower consumer representation and to improve the interface between consumer groups, industry, and strengthen the self-regulatory regime will result in better outcomes and better informed consumers,” and that “better informed consumers will result in better outcomes for industry.”

Today, on the 23rd of June, Senator Conroy has indicated that he is pumping in AUD $87,000 to assist in the establishment of a new telecommunications consumer peak body.

Senator Conroy said that: “The Government wants to give consumers a more powerful and effective voice in the development of telecommunications policy. To demonstrate our commitment to strengthening the consumer voice I have provided a grant of $87,000 to the Consumers' Telecommunications Network (CTN) on behalf of the working group of consumer representation bodies.”

“CTN will act as the co-ordinating body to ensure the smooth transition to the new strengthened body”, explained the Senator.

“The telecommunications consumer representation working group has been working to establish a peak body to reinforce and expand current consumer representation and build on the capacity and expertise that already exists. There are many practical considerations to setting up a new body such as this. Some are particularly difficult for not-for-profit organisations such as those charged with this task,” continued Senator Conroy.

So, what kind of body will $87,000 build? Continued on page 2.