Senator ALSTON (Minister for Communications and the Arts)(6.03 p.m.) —The problem is that industry plans are meant to be a basis for carriers giving an indication of their general intentions in a whole range of areas that would affect industry development. Once you start to make those plans across the board—not just R&D but virtually everything that breathes in the running of a business in this country—subject to potentially very severe penalties, there will be a very significant inhibition placed on a carrier in volunteering things into an industry plan. They do not really know whether it is consistent or inconsistent with WTO until after the event. But assuming they are held to be consistent with, there is a very significant risk on their part that they will unintentionally infringe.

You could go through a very complicated process in determining the extent to which they have complied with each element of an industry plan that is as broad and varied as the one we have described. If all of those activities are to be potentially subject to serious financial penalty, it seems to us to mean that you will simply create an environment of uncertainty which will distort the content of the carrier's industry plans. Rather than having them come forward with their best endeavours, what you will get is simply a low level indication of their true plans because they will be afraid that they might otherwise be penalised.