Below is the submission of Janene Brown, Phone: 02 67621249; PO Box 1198, Tamworth, NSW, 2340

Dear Senators,

I don't envy you the job of being on this committee. However you have the responsibility of determining the direction of freedom of information in this country.

The full privatisation of Telstra is not a matter of money, but a matter of social equality, security & freedom.

Let me explain....
Australia is a large and expansive landmass. We all know that. We as citzens, readily cover distances that people from other countries are astounded about. Before the general availability of technology such as telephones, we had to visit somewhere or write letters to find out what it was like or how the people lived. To catch up with relatives & friends was a big task which took time & effort.

As technology has improved, it has allowed us the freedom in this great country to communicate with other people & places in Australia & indeed across the world through the means of telephones, faxes & the Internet. This indeed has been a wonderful thing.

My concern with the privatisation is as follows:

1. Full sale of Telstra will mean our only means of readily available communication will be in the hands of a private company. Based on the running of private companies both here & overseas, it doesn't bode well for having reliability & customer service top of the list when it comes to running the company. Let's look at the HIH & OneTel incidents. How can the government guarantee the private company won't be run by directors more concerned by company profits & the investors rather than the service provided to the customer. Looking at recent history there's nothing to stop the privatised Telstra going belly up. Take what happened to Ansett. The government claimed it couldn't help as it had no business interferring in private enterprise. Why should it change the rules for a privately run Telstra?

2. Suppose Telstra did become fully privatised. What guarantee would there be that pricing would be affordable for all SocioEconomic levels in Australia? Already pensioners are finding it tough to balance their budgets. Would it mean the government would have to subsidise phone services for these people? Would they get the same quality of service? Surely it would be better if the government was able to make money not give money to Telstra. But I will get to that argument shortly.

3. A private company is in the business if making money. They don't go into business to be a social welfare agency. And who can blame them - that's what it's all about. It's the government's job to look after the people & provide basic services such as education, health, law & order & a secure effective means of communication. How can the government fulfill it's role if it keeps selling all it's assets?

4. Speaking of assets, why is the government really selling Telstra? If private enterprise wants to buy into it, it must be making a profit of some sort. Why isn't the government taking the opportunity to use that profit to fund other government responsibilities. Surely sensible business people (as the government seems to think it has become) wouldn't sell what was profitable & then turn around and make the new owners even more wealthy by using the very thing they just sold? Usually business people sell a business because it is in, or getting into, trouble & they can't afford to fix it, or the owners have had enough of running it & they'd like to retire. (Is the government getting ready to retire?)

5. Private enterprise is not in the business of propping up unprofitable practices. What happens if the provision of service in some areas (be they remote, awkward or dangerous) becomes too unprofitable & costly? Will they just cancel service to those areas? I don't think the Tourism industry will be too pleased about that. (not to mention the residents) Will our Tourism Minister have to say "Come to Australia. Visit our great land of wonderful experiences but don't get sick, hurt or expect to keep in contact with anyone except who you are with because the phone services only work in very limited areas" This might have been acceptable forty - even twenty - years ago but is totally unacceptable now. Especially in places which already have these services.

6. National security. How can we be told to be alert but not alarmed when there are plans underway to sell the very backbone of our communication system. For crying out loud, what happened at Sydney Airport a couple of weeks ago? Gee some guys who were pretending to be computer techs marched in & stole a couple of computers from the security section. Good to see Sydney Airport had it's high security systems in place. (Do I mention here this is the same Sydney Airport which has just been PRIVATISED???) Now the government is saying it is the responsibility of the Airports & Airlines to foot the security bill. Is this going to be the same argument used for making a privatised Telstra stay secure??? Perhaps we should all be alarmed not alert.

The Bottom Line.

Sure there are problems with Telstra. We all know & have experienced them at different times. But surely a sensible approach is to  fix the problems, reinvest the profits for the time being to bring it up to scatch. Then use the future profits from an even more successful & profitable Telstra to fund other government services instead of increasing direct & indirect taxes.

Technology is the way of the future. Particularly for Australia being such along way from all other nations. We can't be a first world force with potentially third world communication systems. We can't let this happen. STOP TELSTRA FROM FULL PRIVATISATION & give our nation a go!!!