Consumers, Competitors Left Exposed by Bill Impasse

The CCC today called on the Minister for Communications, Senator Conroy, to provide a guarantee that any deal offered by Telstra to structurally separate will be subjected to public analysis and approval by the ACCC.

“The Government intended to provide for scrutiny of any structural separation deal in the Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill, but the Senate appears to have run out of time to consider and pass that Bill because of the Emissions Trading Scheme imbroglio,” CCC executive director David Forman said.

“This means that negotiations between Telstra and the Government for Telstra to separate its network and wholesale businesses will continue with no safety net to protect the interests of consumers and competitors.

“This is exactly what Telstra tried to achieve in arguing for the Bill to be delayed.

“With Telstra and the Government repeatedly saying that they are working toward a deal before Christmas, there is a grave risk that a deal will be done before the Bill can be brought back into the Parliament next year,” Mr Forman said.

“The CCC calls on the Minister to give a rock solid commitment that he will find a way to prevent Telstra from by passing the public scrutiny and ACCC approval that his Bill envisaged.”

Contact:

David Forman
Executive Director
CCC Inc
0438121114