Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD) THIRTY-FIFTH PARLIAMENT THIRD SESSION 2000 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Legislative Council Tuesday, 14 March 2000 THE PRESIDENT (Hon George Cash) took the Chair at 3.30 pm, and read prayers. HON GRAHAM GIFFARD, ELECTION Statement by the President THE PRESIDENT (Hon George Cash): Members, on 20 January this year Hon John Halden submitted his resignation as a member for the South Metropolitan Region, and on 10 February 2000 Hon Graham Giffard swore the oath of affirmation in respect of his election as a member of this Legislative Council. I take this opportunity to welcome Hon Graham Giffard. I hope that his tenure in the Legislative Council is enjoyable, productive and memorable. Members: Hear, hear! LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL SEATING ARRANGEMENTS Statement by the President THE PRESIDENT (Hon George Cash): Hon Graham Giffard will be recognised from the seat that was formerly occupied by Hon John Halden. Other seating changes are that Hon Peter Foss, Attorney General and Minister for Justice, will be recognised from the seat formerly occupied by Hon Max Evans, former Minister for Finance; Hon Barry House, who has been appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, will be recognised from the seat formerly occupied by the Attorney General; and Hon Max Evans will be recognised from the seat that was formerly occupied by Hon Barry House. BILLS - ASSENT Messages from the Governor and the Deputy of the Governor received and read notifying assent to the following Bills - 1. Sentence Administration Bill 1998. 2. Sentencing Legislation Amendment and Repeal Bill 1999. 3. Gas Corporation (Business Disposal) Bill 1999. 4. Planning Legislation Amendment Bill 1998. 5. Native Title (State Provisions) Bill 1999. NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPS Petition Hon B.M. Scott presented a petition, by delivery to the Clerk, from 32 persons opposing all proposals to locate high level nuclear waste dumps in Western Australia. [See paper No 708.] TELSTRA PRIVATISATION Urgency Motion THE PRESIDENT (Hon George Cash): I have received the following letter addressed to me and dated 14 March 2000 - Dear Mr President At today's sitting it is my intention to move under SO 72 that the House at its rising adjourn until 9 am on 25 December 2000 for the purpose of discussing concerns about the privatisation of Telstra, the adverse impact of this privatisation on services in rural and regional Western Australia and the failure of the State and Federal Governments to ensure an adequate return to Western Australia from the proceeds of the first part of Telstra's privatisation. Yours sincerely Hon Tom Stephens MLC Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council & Member for Mining and Pastoral Region In order to discuss this matter, it will be necessary for at least four members to indicate their support by rising in their places. [At least four members rose in their places.] HON TOM STEPHENS (Mining and Pastoral - Leader of the Opposition) [3.43 pm]: I move - That the House at its rising adjourn until 9.00 am on 25 December. 4424 [COUNCIL] In the lead-up to the current parliamentary session the Opposition was faced with an endless number of disasters, which loom on the political landscape of this country, brought about by coalition Governments at federal and state levels, that it could have selected for discussion as a matter of urgency today. None is more important than the issue now before this House. Fresh, and flushed by its success in bringing in the now despised and detested goods and services tax that looms on the national stage, the Federal coalition Government is in the process of - Several members interjected. The PRESIDENT: Order! This session has been in progress for only 10 minutes. I ask members not to interject, so that I may hear the Leader of the Opposition. Hon TOM STEPHENS: The Federal Government is in the process of allowing an agency, Telstra, to announce that 10 000 jobs will be axed, at the same time as that agency has recorded a profit of $2.1b in the past six months, which compares with its profit for the previous six months of $4.1b. No doubt many of those 10 000 jobs will be across Western Australia, including regional, remote and rural Western Australia. The Governments, at both state and national levels, should be ashamed of themselves. We have not yet seen returned to this State the much promised returns from the sell off of the first 49.9 per cent of Telstra. In the face of that failure, today we heard a further announcement by the Prime Minister that with speed, and at the earliest opportunity, he will proceed with the full sell off of Telstra. Having not even delivered to the people of Australia the return they were supposed to get from the first sale, he embarks on and recommits himself to the program to sell off the rest. Both the National Party members and Liberal Party members of this State Government have an obligation to the people of Western Australia to stand up to the national Government. It is time they joined with the Labor Opposition and stood up for the people of the bush. They deserve the odium the people of Western Australia have for the members of the National Party as coalition partners in this Government. They are lap-dogs, tame dogs for the Federal Government. They refuse to stand up to it in the way they should. They engaged in sleight of hand when it came to the GST, when the Federal Government promised a return for ordinary Australians. We now know nothing could be further from the truth. On top of that, we are set to experience a dramatic reduction in the job market as a result of the loss of 10 000 jobs within Telstra. This organisation employs approximately 50 000 people Australia-wide. In Western Australia, the figure is 5 135 employees - 4 075 permanent staff and 1 060 contract staff, of whom 533 are based in rural Western Australia. This figure represents approximately 10 per cent of the rural work force. In the lead-up to this parliamentary session, I wrote letters and sent emails and faxes to a broad cross-section of the constituent groups of my electorate to ascertain the issues of importance to them. High among the returns came complaints from those in the bush about the loss of the quality of service delivered by the Federal Government in a whole range areas, not least of which is that by Telstra. Under this Federal Government we have seen the absolute destruction of the services of Australia Post to the Kimberley region; I am pleased to see Hon Greg Smith nodding his head in agreement. We now see a further deterioration of that service with the loss of the jobs in Telstra. How on earth is it possible to improve the service offered by Telstra to regional and rural Western Australia when 10 000 employees are to be stripped from that organisation? Members should keep in mind that much of that loss is scheduled to take place over the next two years, and is said to come from natural attrition. In part, that natural attrition will come from the expertise that exists within the organisation, expertise that is desperately needed by it. Telstra will be haemorrhaging. That expertise will be lost to the people of bush, who desperately need it. Those in the bush are entitled to a functioning communications system that, until the recent past, Telstra was providing in a substantial and credible way to the people of rural, remote, regional Western Australia. Regrettably that is no longer on offer under the completely privatised Telstra service to be offered in this country. It does not matter that the Government talks about universal service obligations and community service guarantees. We already know that too regularly those service obligations are breached, with no redress available to the people of the bush. The Government should listen to the pleas of pastoralists of the Gascoyne, Murchison, Kimberly and Pilbara regions for starters, let alone those in the goldfields, who complain that under existing operations they are not able to get a communications system of a sufficient speed to guarantee them access to the fundamentally important services that come from the Internet and the World Wide Web. Instead, they are faced with endless delays and a lack of opportunity as a result of the failure of this Government to require Telstra to deliver that service to all Western Australians - including those who live in regional remote parts of State. Today I received another plea from the pastoral community, in this case from a Kimberley pastoralist who describes the complex difficulties that now await anyone trying to get a telephone installed on a station, where the Telstra service, regrettably, is starting to falter. It is faltering because the Federal Government, aided and abetted by the State Government, has allowed Telstra to take its eyes off the ball. This organisation is now focused on its profit obligations to 49.9 per cent of its shareholders. I refer to about 2.1 million ordinary Australians, for sure; however, only 49.9 per cent of shareholders of Telstra want profit. The majority shareholders are the people of the entire nation - those for whom the Commonwealth is entrusted with the organisation - who oblige Telstra to deliver quality services to all Australians, including those in rural, remote and regional Western Australia. Regrettably, that service is already at risk, and will increasingly be placed at risk as a result of further cutbacks in employee numbers when Telstra's CEO's announcement is effected.