Mr BILLSON (7:55 PM) —I begin by wishing all those with love in their hearts the best of wishes for Valentine's Day tomorrow and hope that they have made appropriate arrangements to recognise those dear to them.

I rise tonight to talk about the unilateral decision of Pacific Access—the company that produces the White and Yellow Pages for communities around Australia—to discontinue the production of the local Frankston Chelsea Community Directory White Pages as part of a single directory. Last year, Pacific Access circulated to households and businesses in my community a new community directory that only contained Yellow Pages listings. That has been justified to me and to a number of people in our local community as a decision made by Pacific Access in response to community sentiment. We have tracked this thought down and Pacific Access advise us that they undertook quite a deal of community surveying and market research to arrive at a decision to produce a local community telephone directory with no White Pages—no residential numbers are listed in the current directory circulated in the Frankston and Chelsea areas.

I do not know who Pacific Access or their consultants spoke to, but I have yet to meet anybody in the Frankston and Chelsea areas who thought this was a good idea. Our community still has a strong community spirit. We are a regional centre where the urban sprawl of Melbourne stops and the terrific Mornington Peninsula begins. A lot of people still think very parochially, want to get behind their local community and support local businesses, and find their friends and associates conveniently within their local community directory.

Prior to last year's publication, the Frankston Chelsea community phone directory was an asset for the whole community. It was a simple volume not more than 1½ centimetres thick which could sit beside the phones of businesses and households right around the community I represent. It replaced the two volumes of about three centimetres each of White and Yellow Pages. You could actually use those phone directories like you see on television as a shortened stool to stand on to reach things on top of the fridge. As useful as that may be for people who are vertically challenged like myself and your good self, Mr Speaker, that is not terribly helpful when you are looking for a telephone number in your local community.

I am calling on Pacific Access to undertake some serious community consultation. I have not met anybody in the community I represent who thinks that last year's decision was a good idea. We are approaching March this year when a new local community telephone directory is to be produced and circulated. The community I represent is looking for both the White and Yellow Pages listings in that directory.

Businesses in our area are dissatisfied with not having the White Pages as a companion to the local Yellow Pages business listings. Residents are saying that they now have to wade through these two and three centimetre volumes of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan phone directory to find simple phone numbers. I do not know anybody who is happy with the current arrangements. I have offered to undertake some local community research of my own for businesses are unhappy and they pay the bills for the advertisements in the Yellow Pages. They are not happy that the White Pages are not part of the publication. They were not consulted about that prior to their placing advertisements in last year's version.

Frankston Mitre 10 wants to be recognised in a community directory that has residential listings as well, as do Marketline Property Services, SkillsPlus and even the terrific cafes in Frankston. When you are looking for a cafe for a quality cafe latte you do not want to go through two- or three-centimetre volumes. My community has a distinct character and it is very supportive of its local businesses, and Pacific Access should not be making it more difficult to find those businesses than it already is.

The SPEAKER —Order! It being 8 p.m., the debate is interrupted.