WA: Telstra sell-off = poorer services
By Geoff Gallop, Premier of Western Australia
John Howard promised a bucket of Telstra money to appease Queensland, but that leaves WA out in the cold.
Date: 10 September 2005
Premier Gallop, left, says services in the bush are at risk
Last week, the Western Australian Parliament passed a motion opposing the full sale of Telstra. It was an opportunity for WA members to have their say on the issue.
Labor moved the motion because we want the WA public to see where their local representatives stand on this most basic question, which will impact on the future of our country and our State. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the WA Liberals and Nationals meekly followed the line set by John Howard.
There is no doubt that privatisation of our basic infrastructure is seen as a crucial issue by the people of WA. We've seen first hand the damage to regional towns caused by privatisation. The previous coalition government privatised Westrail freight and contracted out Main Roads services. Clearly, those privatisations had a negative impact on regional communities throughout the entire State.
Privatisation reduced services. It also saw a reduction in employment in regional WA and the full privatisation of Telstra contains the same threats to the future of our State.
It is worth noting that the Howard Government has now had nine years to get telecommunication services up to scratch. All it has been interested in is privatisation and now, of course, it wants to complete the story and go to the full 100% sale of Telstra. It is doing that in the context of a system that is not up to scratch.
A study undertaken only two years ago showed that Western Australians living outside Perth are not happy with their level of service. It also showed that there are clearly demonstrated shortages in the system and not every Western Australian is guaranteed equal access to this most important infrastructure.
There is a big question that still has to be answered by John Howard: how will we meet the needs of our communities into the future? Past experience shows that if we privatise Telstra it will inevitably mean that the much needed improvement in infrastructure rollout will either not happen, or happen very, very slowly. It will go to those areas that create a return for the privatised Telstra, not to those areas where they are needed.
Western Australians should be very suspicious when they look at the Telstra fund that has been spoken about. This so-called $3billion fund is the pay off to the National Party to justify selling one of our most basic services.
Western Australian Liberal Senators will have a choice on this. Are they going to support Western Australia or are they going to support privatisation? If they try to argue that they will get a return for their State through this fund, I urge them to look at the Howard Government’s record.
WA gets rough deal
Despite WA's contribution to the national economy and our geographical size, we receive just 6.7% of the Howard Government’s national road funding allocation through the AusLink program. When it comes to our share of funding allocated to the rail network, the inequity is even greater. The Howard Government will invest $1.8billion in rail projects on the national network over the next five years and only $14million will come to Western Australia - less than 1% of the funding allocation to rail.
Telecommunications is an area in which governments need their hands on the levers, as it delivers basic services to people. Telecommunications is a basic service, as is the provision of schools, hospitals, roads and rail.
It is my strong view that one of the reasons my Government was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 is because we took such a strong stand and opposed the privatisation of basic infrastructure.
Selling off means selling out, and the public won't support sell-outs.
NOTE: This story is from the State Secretary's Newsletter (September edition), which is available in full as a PDF file under 'Downloads' on this page.
