Senator ALLISON (12:38 PM) —I indicate that the Democrats support these amendments. They almost fulfil an election commitment. Their effect is to mandate the availability of digital data capability as part of the USO. The Democrats have been pushing for this for some time, so we are pleased to see that it is now part of the legislation.

However, the major problem that we have with these amendments is their inadequacy with regard to the pricing of digital data services. The amendments do give the minister the power to make price control arrangements and to cap pricing of these services, but as far as we are aware—and I hope the minister will clarify this as soon as possible—the minister has no intention of regulating the price of ISDN. So the only financial assistance that will be provided under the USO relates to the provision of customer equipment for four per cent of Australians who need to purchase satellite equipment. There is no cross-subsidy under the USO for the service charges associated with obtaining ISDN.

There hardly seems to be any point in bothering to mandate the availability of these services when the price at which they are set is simply too high for the average consumer to afford. I understand that the cost of ISDN is in the region of $700 a year, plus timed call charges. We think that the price of ISDN services needs to be set at an affordable level, and what the government is not doing is making this technology affordable. Again, it is almost pointless to mandate the availability of a product or a service under the USO if the USO provider makes it available at an unaffordable price.

I would like to recount a comment made by Mr Alasdair Grant, from the carrier AAPT, in his testimony to the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee inquiry into the bills. He said:

Telstra has been dragged kicking and screaming to make 64 kilobit services available to I think now 98.4 per cent of the population. Having done so, it has now somewhat petulantly decided to price it at a level that no-one can really afford.

So while ISDN access is available to 98.4 per cent of the population, the ACA's report says that something like 65 residential consumers in the entire country are purchasing it. The issue becomes not just the availability of these services, because where those services are available but only available under monopoly conditions, they will be there but no-one will take them up because they are far too expensive.

The price of obtaining digital data capability must be affordable. The Democrats' first amendment on sheet 1258 proposes mandating the availability of ISDN or comparable services, but the difference between the government's amendment and ours is that it proposes that the service be provided at an affordable price. So we will be supporting these government amendments but we will be pursuing our amendment, which will involve the regulation of the price of ISDN services to make them affordable.

I have a couple of questions to which I would be obliged if the minister could turn his mind. Having regard to yesterday's decision that there will be a cap applied to the USO, what are the cost implications of this amendment? In other words, is there any part of this amendment which mandates the availability which will be accounted for in the USO? Will the cap be increased as a result of that, and what is the process for doing so?