E&OE .............................................................................................
Good evening. The best way to see Telstra improve its services to all
Australians, is to pass a law requiring that to happen. That's exactly
what the Government has done. Our Customer Service Guarantee now even
requires Telstra to pay financial compensation to customers if they do
not meet adequate service levels.
I still believe that Telstra needs to lift its game in the country. But
there is evidence that services are improving. Telstra maintains that
connection times and fault repair times have improved across rural and
remote Australia in the last two years.
They have said that 98% of Telstra's remote area customers are now
being connected within our legislated time frames. In addition, STD charges
have fallen by 45% in real terms over recent years. And country users
will now benefit from the new 15 cent neighbourhood call, expected to
cover about half their local calls.
I want to make it perfectly clear, that we will not fully privatise Telstra
unless a public inquiry certifies that adequate service levels have been
met. And we will work for higher levels of service. From July this year
phone companies will be required to supply new phone connections in rural
and remote areas where there is infrastructure in less than half the time
that is now allowed.
Without the most recent sale of Telstra, we could not establish up to
500 Rural Transaction Centres. We could not extend SBS Television to the
homes of a further 1.2 million Australians. We could not allow more people
in remote areas to make untimed calls to their neighbours, nor retire
the massive Government debt that Labor left behind. Good night.
[Ends]