Mr TANNER (3:07 PM) —My question is addressed to the Acting Prime Minister. Can the Acting Prime Minister confirm that many hundreds of thousands of Australians who have paid Telstra for a second telephone line have instead had their existing line split in two by using cost cutting, line sharing pair gain technology? Can he confirm that this line sharing drastically reduces dial-up Internet speed and prevents the use of ADSL broadband and that Telstra refuses to disclose the line sharing, deceiving consumers into thinking they have been given a full new line? Acting Prime Minister, how do you justify Telstra's massive phone line rental increases when they are short-changing so many customers, charging more and delivering less?

Mr ANDERSON (Minister for Transport and Regional Services) —I thank the honourable member for his question. I would draw his attention in good faith to the reality that, if he is really serious about eliciting information in this place, he might like to note that I am not actually the minister responsible for telecommunications, nor am I the spokesperson in this place for telecommunications.

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Minister—

Mr ANDERSON —No, Mr Speaker, if this place is to be taken seriously—

Mr Fitzgibbon —Not when GI Joe is in charge!

The SPEAKER —The member for Hunter and the member for Werriwa! Minister, I was not interrupting you.

Mr ANDERSON —No, I was not accusing you of that.

The SPEAKER —I simply wanted to get the House to recognise the obligations it had to hear you without interruption.

Mr ANDERSON —So, Mr Speaker, I just say that those sorts of questions are important and deserve some technical elucidation. It is true that Telstra does pair lines; there is no doubt about that. There is no doubt too that in certain circumstances it can have an impact on data speeds, as I understand the technology.

Mr ANDERSON —That does not alter the fact of some general comments that I think are very important to make in this place. Firstly, we—and not the Labor Party, in 13 years in government—have put in place a set of universal service obligations and customer service guarantees which give consumers rights that they can exercise, that they can insist that Telstra, for example—

Mr Fitzgibbon —At what speed?

Mr ANDERSON —To respond—unwisely, I suppose—to the interjection, they can go to Telstra and demand their rights to certain data speeds. It would also—

Mr Tanner —What on earth are you talking about?

Mr ANDERSON —You can insist on certain data speeds in rural and regional areas in particular. It is also important to make the point, though, that the reality is that charges for many of these services are coming down—

Mr ANDERSON —and that in relation to line service charges—

The SPEAKER —Order! I warn the member for Melbourne!

Mr ANDERSON —This is the next point I want to make: in the line rentals issue, it has been known for a long time—supported by the ACCC and Allan Fels, supported by telecommunications experts everywhere—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr ANDERSON —Mr Speaker, they are not interested in my elucidating these facts at all.

Ms Plibersek —You don't even know any!

The SPEAKER —Order! The member for Sydney is warned.

The SPEAKER —I say to the Leader of the Opposition that there is never a question time in which I do not find myself having to draw his attention to the obligation he has not to interject.

Mr Crean —It was just a friendly interjection.

The SPEAKER —There are few of those.

Mr Crean —There are not! There are plenty of them!

The SPEAKER —The Leader of the Opposition will not defy the chair or I will deal with him, as I am obliged to do.

The SPEAKER —Neither will the member for Dunkley. Has the Acting Prime Minister concluded his answer?

Mr ANDERSON —No, I have not. I meant, when I referred to the ACC, the ACCC. I make the point—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr ANDERSON —If they are interested in information, Mr Speaker, I am prepared to provide them with quite a bit. The fact is that the ACCC and the Productivity Commission have both argued strongly for removal of what is known as the access deficit, because it will enable more competition for access to lines. Competition brings down charges and improves services. I know that is novel to the neo-socialists opposite who now want to go back to the public ownership of—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr ANDERSON —Any day now we will see them wanting to take over public ownership of Qantas again, and then it will be the Commonwealth Bank, and it will go on and on and on. But competition improves services and brings down prices. The ACCC and the Productivity Commission have both highlighted the need to remove what is known as the access deficit, and we have agreed that that ought to happen over four years. The really important point of all of this is that the Leader of the Opposition, and the opposition more generally, has known about these price increases for some five months. Not a word was breathed—because they knew the policy argument—until the Leader of the Opposition found his way down to a certain seat, which he is a bit worried about, on the east coast of New South Wales. He went out and made a hero of himself saying that he would save battlers money—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The Acting Prime Minister will come back to the question.

Mr ANDERSON —He made a hero of himself by saying that he would disallow these line rental increases because it would save battlers money. It will not; it will not save them any money. In reality, if he were to succeed, he would remove the opportunity for a new competitor that wants to provide services to the people in that seat by providing easier access to the lines in the area. This is political opportunism of the first order, and the people of Cunningham will have no opportunity to benefit at all from the Leader of the Opposition's misplaced heroism.

Mr Tanner —Could I ask the Acting Prime Minister to table the document he was reading from?

The SPEAKER —Was the Acting Prime minister reading from a document?

Mr Anderson —In very small part only.

The SPEAKER —Was the document confidential?

Mr Anderson —Yes.

The SPEAKER —The Acting Prime Minister has indicated that the document was confidential.

The SPEAKER —Order! I warn the member for Watson!