Mobile, But Not In The Driving Seat
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday July 10, 1998
At the launch of a new cellular phone network, Tim Fischer was desperate to show he's listening to regional Australia. But will it do him any good?
TIM Fischer waved the mobile phone around like it was an offering from the heavens. A handpiece similar to this one, he asserted, would help bridge the divide between the city and the bush, giving regional Australia access to a new generation of mobile phone technology.
The occasion was a press conference yesterday to enable Fischer and the Communications Minister, Senator Richard Alston, to spruik the benefits of a new Telstra mobile network service.
Stripped of the mind-numbing jargon which dominated the press conference, making Fischer's utterances even more difficult to fathom than usual, it basically means that Telstra has been "persuaded" to use some of its new spectrum monopoly to set up a whiz-bang network that will benefit both analog and digital users.
According to Fischer, this means that country folk won't be stuck with an agonising choice between the two existing systems as we move towards the 2000 analog shutdown.
For the $350 cost of a new handset, they will be able to use a mobile system with the quality of digital, but with expansive coverage in regional Australia.
That Fischer, rather than Alston, was doing most of the spruiking says a lot about the current political environment.
The National Party leader is desperate to prove that his party can deliver for his constituency, much of which has either deserted to One Nation or is seriously viewing it as an alternative at the Federal election.
Like the famous Demtel salesman, Fischer is out there pitching furiously the value of his own party's wares.
He has even learnt the "and there's more . . ." trick. There will be another bush communications announcement today.
The reason why Telstra is coughing up the more than $400 million required for the new service is, as Alston stated bluntly, because he is under "enormous" pressure from Government backbenchers in regional areas to do something about the quality of mobile phone services.
Alston simply transferred that pressure to the phone carriers, warning that if they did not come up with a solution to the problem created by the phasing out of the analog system, then the Government would have a close look at their licences to deliver a solution.
For Telstra, which swooped on the 800MHz spectrum licences when they were put up for auction recently, it is both good politics and good business.
It may not sound like a big issue out in the suburbs, but to country Australia, the constant frustration of veering out of range while making mobile phone calls, or not being able to get any signal at all, is symbolic of what they see as the big city/big government snubbing of the bush.
The Telstra sale is the same issue, writ larger. The recent Queensland election showed how easy it is for One Nation to milk regional dissatisfaction over the performance of the communications giant.
To many country voters, semi-privatisation has allowed Telstra to wind down its services to remote areas where people are dependent upon the phone and other communications devices. They fear the consequences of a full sale.
The sentiment was captured in a blistering letter National backbencher De-Anne Kelly sent to her party's Senate boss, Ron Boswell, earlier this week.
Kelly, whose outback Queensland seat of Dawson is deep in Hanson territory, is fiercely opposed to the full Telstra sale and still looks likely to cross the floor.
"I have noted in the media that the Prime Minister has been quoted as saying that `the sale of Telstra is very much part of the debt retirement structure and program and profile of the Government'," Kelly wrote.
"I can certainly assure you that the sale is seen as part of the `profile' of the Government and that profile is regarded as harsh and ugly by many who feel their concerns are being ignored."
Noting the recent performance report by the Australian Communications Authority showing Telstra sliding on 11 out of 17 criteria, Kelly added:
"[My constituents] understandably link this decline in service - despite absolute assurances to the contrary - to the partial sale of Telstra and make the logical next step of linking a further decline to the full sale."
Not surprisingly, One Nation is running a "return Telstra to public ownership" platform, vying with Labor for the anti-privatisation vote.
It is also arguing that the privatisation agenda is symptomatic of the inability of the Nationals to wield any clout inside Cabinet.
The charge is inaccurate, but only in the sense that the Nationals have never really mounted a serious case against the Telstra privatisation.
As one National senator admitted yesterday, this week's backbench revolt against the full sale was "never really on". "The game was over as soon as we conceded the initial one-third sale," he said.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, shrewdly bought the Nationals' backing, ensuring that their constituents were able to benefit from the sale proceeds via the $1 billion Natural Heritage Trust. He has adopted the same tack this time, with up to $500 million of the "social bonus" emanating from the next sale to be spent on upgrading communications technology in the bush.
"It means we can engage in our usual election strategy of pouring money into voters' pockets," the National senator said.
There was no subtlety in Howard's offer. He bluntly warned the rebelling Nationals on Wednesday that without the full sale "the money is simply not there to fund a lot of things that people want".
In fact, for all the hype post-Queensland election, little has changed in the Coalition dynamics. Howard was able to vary the previously "set in concrete" 10-point Wik plan with nary a whimper from his Coalition partners.
And while Howard is aware of the need to satisfy bush voters in his tax reform package - the latest message is that it is extremely user friendly - you can lay long odds on the ability of the Nationals to affect any major last-minute changes.
The Nationals may be sharing the Government car, but there is only one driver, and it isn't Tim Fischer.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
