From
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...05-664,00.html
TELSTRA has put new Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in the hot seat,
launching an appeal over a funding decision made by his Liberal predecessor.
In what could become its first bout with the Labor Government the telco said
it would continue its legal fight to access confidential documents.
The documents relate to former Communications Minister Helen Coonan's
decision to award a $958 million rural broadband tender to an Optus and
Elders joint venture known as OPEL.
Senator Conroy, as the new Minister, effectively becomes the respondent to
the appeal.
If successful the action could lay the groundwork for Telstra to launch a
fresh action against Senator Coonan's original decision, which could see the
OPEL funding revoked.
"Taxpayers and Telstra shareholders are still in the dark about a selection
program supervised by the previous government that cost nearly $1 billion of
public money, intervened needlessly in the highly competitive mobiles
market, lacked transparency, and fell short of its stated purpose of
expanding the availability of broadband," Telstra's public policy and
communications chief Phil Burgess said yesterday.