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TELSTRA; Maximum Profit, Minimum Effort - Howard Emanuel

With the recent announcement by Telstra of a record $4.18 billion dollar annual profit, the carrier's arguments regarding the high set-up costs... Read More...

By Howard Emanuel - 16th September 2004 - Back to News

With the recent announcement by Telstra of a record $4.18 billion dollar annual profit, the carrier's arguments regarding the high set-up costs for mobile phone and Broadband infrastructure in rural areas sound increasingly hollow, if not outright insulting.

Many areas in rural Australia are still recognised "black spots" for mobile reception and personally I feel uncomfortable with the notion that I should pay Telstra for access to their mobile network, with no inherent guarantee that I will be able to use the service at all times. When I ran a small business I delivered the service to the customer and wouldn’t expect to be paid unless that outcome was complete.

Most disturbing to me in this whole episode is the strong "privatised" culture I can see dominating the thinking of the Telstra board.  Optimum concern is focused on shareholder return and not on service quality and delivery. Did not the new chair of the Telstra board utter some similar statement recently when he said his "main agenda was to maximise returns to shareholders above all else". And this fellow hails from rural Australia and was supposed to make rural people feel comfortable about a privatised Telstra. This satire would be almost laughable, except for the serious nature of the issue.

Most Australians have had well enough of the "privatisation miracle" and prefer Telstra to remain in public hands. If the Telco can make $4.18 billion dollar annual profits under its current guise, why would you sell it off? Why not give all Australians some benefit of the strong performance of this publicly owned company, after all many of them in fact underwrite the performance of this entity. 

In the meantime Telstra, kindly fulfil your obligations to the community and plough back some of these huge profits into infrastructure improvements. After all you were only too willing to take my money, now can I have the product I paid for please.

Thank you.

Howard Emanuel.

Independent Candidate for the Federal Seat of McMillan.

Convener: Rural Social Justice Movement

Tele/Fax: (03)5684 1561

Mobile:   0400 158 896

E-mail:   howard@howardemanuel.com

Website: www.HowardEmanuel.com

"Bringing the People back into Policy!"

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: kris@howardemanuel.com