From
http://www.commsday.com/node/577
Australia's leading telecommunications expert, Paul Day, reports:
A Senate Committee investigating Telstra’s potential break-up has been
inundated with submissions from irate shareholders. The committee is charged
with investigating the new ‘Competition and Consumer Safeguards’ Bill which
will see Telstra either ‘voluntarily’ structurally separate or be forcibly
functionally separated, and has already received 22 public submissions ahead
of deadline– predominantly from shareholders decrying the move as a
“monumental swindle.”
“This proposed legislation to strip Telstra of its infrastructure monopoly
is a monumental swindle,” a submission from an individual named Veronica
Nicholls stated. “Telstra shareholders paid a premium for their shares and
should be fully compensated. All Australians should stand up against a
government who seem to consider it a right to intimidate its citizens into
submission,” she said, adding that shareholders would “show their anger at
the ballot box.”
Numerous other submissions continued the colourful tirade against the
legislation. “The options given to Telstra are simply – if Telstra doesn’t
cut off both arms, the Government is going to take off both legs. Either way
it is going to be a painful death,” one stated. “It is grossly unfair.
Looked at from any point of view, it is commercial blackmail and morally and
ethically disgraceful.”
The submissions have been posted online just as Telstra is expected to
reveal its own response to the legislation. The company had come under fire
from certain shareholders in recent weeks for its muted response to the
Bill, but CEO David Thodey declared he would elaborate on Telstra’s position
before the next meeting of the separate NBN Senate Select Committee. The
committee will meet today in Melbourne, and on Thursday in Hobart.
Telstra is understood to have completed a submission outlining its response,
but the company is yet to make it public.
Despite Telstra’s quiet approach to government relations under Thodey,
additional submissions from shareholders accused the federal government of
an “outrageous abuse of power.” One individual said they were at a “total
loss to understand” the government’s policy, while yet another expressed
“dismay and horror” at the proposed separation.
“I as a shareholder have paid dearly for Telstra’s infrastructure and under
what right does the Government have to take, force the sale or reduce the
ability for me as a shareholder to get a return on my capital,” another
submission asked.
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