As a result of the Howard Government’s ongoing privatisation of Telstra, public payphones are set to be slashed across Canberra.
Telstra’s plans to slash 5000 payphones this year comes despite the Government’s new ‘scrutiny’ for these removals. The Howard Governments rush to privatisation has left those who are most vulnerable without access to essential telecommunication services.
Not everyone can afford a mobile or a fixed line rental.
In Canberra, educational institutions will be the hardest hit by Telstra’s desperate cost-cutting. Telstra has targeted 17 out of 23 payphones for removal at the University of Canberra. The Australian National University is set to lose over half of its payphones. Calvary Public Hospital will also lose two of its public payphones.
Telstra is only required by law to maintain less than a third of its 32,000 payphones nationwide. Existing regulations would not stop Telstra from slashing around 25,000 payphones across the country.
The Howard Government is to blame for the weakening of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), so much so that Telstra is now claiming that only certain payphones are covered by the USO, allowing even more phones to be ripped out.
Payphone services at hospitals and educational institutions, like the University of Canberra, ought to be protected by including them in Telstra’s Universal Service Obligation.
Telstra makes a lot of money from its payphones generally, so it is not acceptable that individual phones that don’t make a profit be ripped out where they are clearly needed.
The only way to maintain telecommunications services standards for all Australians is to keep Telstra in majority public ownership.
Contact: Rachel Allen 0424 529 499
