Australians are not being well served by the limited media...

Australians are not being well served by the limited media debate of the Government’s plans to neuter Telstra in the name of greater telecommunications competition, even though this could result in a new Commonwealth monopoly and losses to the savings of over a million countrymen.

Over recent years Telstra appears to have offended many Australian journalists and media outlets. They have reported at length their perception of the company’s management arrogance, poor customer service and competition constraints. This compares with their more even handed reporting and comment on other former Government-owned companies, such as Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank, despite suggestions that their respective sectors also suffer from a lack of compelling competition.

The Government’s legislative “gun to the head” approach to force Telstra to voluntarily accept structural separation is a first for any Australian Government. It sets a precedent that could be expanded to apply to any Australian company that fails to fall-in with the wishes of the Government of the day. The list of companies that could currently be considered to be out of favour with Labor is long, starting with the big four banks, because of their interest rate policies.

Would the fourth estate be equally relaxed if the Government introduced legislation to punish banks unless they voluntarily decide to reduce their residential mortgage rates or perhaps force Qantas to voluntarily structurally separate from Jetstar?

Equally, the media has had little to say about the Governments apparent agenda to ensure that the new National Broadband Network (NBN) has no effective competition, so as to be able to operate as a monopoly. Commentators appear to accept without question that the NBN will magically create lower retail Internet charges, when in reality it will only be providing a telecommunications network that others will use to deliver retail services.

The NBN network wholesale charges will clearly not be less than those currently charged by Telstra and in all likelihood will be higher if the Government hopes to cover the NBN’s costs. When new wholesale rates are added to already tight Internet Service Provider (ISP) margins, average consumers will be financially disadvantaged, despite the illusion of enhanced competition at the retail level.

Those few commentators who have mentioned the Government’s threat to deny Telstra access to new mobile phone spectrum have generally dismissed it as a tactic to force Telstra to accept structural separation. Few have analysed the adverse impact on consumers if Telstra were to be driven out of the mobile market, nor the fact that most of the other mobile companies are foreign owned.

Even if the media is generally agnostic to the financial losses facing the millions of direct and indirect Telstra shareholders, they surely have a professional duty to inform Australians of the many adverse implications of the Government’s draconian attack on Telstra.