Senator MARK BISHOP (6:54 PM) —The issues that have been raised in submissions to the government's telecommunications service inquiry, which has become commonly known as the Besley inquiry, are not news to Telstra's country customers. Those of us who live in metropolitan areas may be blissfully unaware of the problems with Telstra's service levels, as long as we avoid trying to call for some customer service. Meanwhile, Telstra's country customers face a battle to access the Internet, have faults repaired or new connections installed, or even to hear what the person on the other end of the line is saying because of the paucity of line quality.

Notwithstanding accusations that the Besley inquiry failed to adequately advertise in country areas, more than three-quarters of the 1,076 submissions to the inquiry were received from country customers of Telstra. It is a matter of considerable significance that the Besley inquiry has elicited such an enormous response, and the proportion of those responses coming from country areas is very instructive. Critically, complaints and submissions to the inquiry related more to the inadequacy of infrastructure than to any other issue. Over 900 complaints concerning the inadequacy of the infrastructure were contained in submissions. Infrastructure is the backbone of the telecommunications system in Australia and is critical to the standard of telecommunications service. The existing infrastructure, much of it old and outdated, is failing to provide country customers with fundamental voice and data transmission services of an adequate standard, and this is of great concern to the opposition. The sheer volume of submissions from these areas that raised concerns about the adequacy of infrastructure is indicative of the justified fears of country customers that the issue will never be addressed if Telstra is fully privatised. Across Australia, the capacity of exchanges located outside the metropolitan areas does not allow for new lines to be installed within reasonable time frames or for access to call services available in the city.

Around 900 complaints that Telstra service levels are inadequate, including delayed and lengthy time frames for fault repairs and new connections, should give the government a clear signal that privatisation must not go ahead. This is a huge number of complaints that directly address the government promised threshold test for flogging off the rest of Telstra. The message is clear: Telstra service levels are not adequate. Many people have discovered that their mobile phones are just not working in the country areas. Well over 400 customers were so incensed about the lack of coverage and standard of reception that they were inspired to raise this matter with the Besley inquiry. It is obvious from the evidence that CDMA coverage is far inferior to that provided by analog, despite government assertions to the contrary.

Most of us have, for one reason or another, tried to contact Telstra. We have experienced the frustratingly long queues before a customer service operator answers. We have been transferred from one officer to another before anyone will answer a seemingly simple query or the line mysteriously disappears. Yet how many customers would be moved to write a submission to prove that Telstra is providing inadequate service and should not be sold? Over 450 of those customers in fact did so write. This is an astonishing figure, given a tendency to apathy unless matters are of serious enough concern for the individual to go to the trouble associated with making the effort to be heard. It is even more remarkable, given the limited public awareness of the inquiry and its implications for telecommunications services in Australia.

There should be no disparity in the levels of fundamental services on the basis of where we live in Australia. However, the evidence to this inquiry proves more clearly that there is a huge and expanding gap between the levels of service, adequacy of infrastructure, mobile phone coverage and tele-communication costs in metropolitan areas on the one hand and in the country areas beyond those metropolitan areas around Australia. The number of submissions to the inquiry that came from metropolitan areas compared with non-metropolitan areas is quite remarkable. Around five per cent of the total submissions were from city customers. Yet a startling 75 per cent or so of submissions were from customers in receipt of country service, which is obviously very different from city service. It is interesting to note the states and territories of origin of the submissions. From my calculations, almost half of the submissions came from customers in New South Wales; Queensland contributed 16 per cent; Western Australia and Victoria, around 13 per cent each; and less than five per cent of submissions came from the ACT, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania. It is evident that there are large regional variations in service levels. The Besley inquiry, if it is truly independent, could only find that the evidence in the submissions conclusively demonstrates that service levels are inadequate; hence, in accordance with government policy, Telstra should not be sold.

In anticipating the outcome of the Besley inquiry, it is noteworthy that the government compromised the independence and impartiality of this inquiry by refusing to bring it to parliament and make it a legislated inquiry, as originally promised. Given the perceived conflict of interest of the chair of the inquiry, Mr Besley, arising from his previous Telstra share ownership—and given the recently leaked internal Telstra memo, which casts aspersions on the inquiry's independence from political considerations—it will be interesting to see precisely what conclusions the inquiry will reach. Having read the submissions, there is only one logical conclusion to reach from the evidence, and that is that Telstra service levels are inadequate.

We hope, for the sake of the future provision of communication services to country Australia, that the evidence will finally convince the government that it is important to retain Telstra's majority public ownership. There is no other way to ensure that country customers have access to this vital service.