A key plank of the Howard government's attacks on the public sector is its proposed partial privatisation of Telstra. In preparation, the job cuts are rumoured to be around 24,000 within 18 months.
In South Australia the Keep Telstra Public Alliance, formed to fight the sell-off, brings together unions, environmental organisations, political parties and individuals. Green Left Weekly's ADAM HANIEH spoke to GERRY KANDELAARS, KTPA convener and branch secretary of the communications division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU).
Question: Why is your union opposed to the partial privatisation of Telstra?
First, we believe that Telstra provides services to all Australians on a fair and equitable basis. As Telstra attempts to maximise profits, customer service will be diminished substantially for those least able to afford it. People in rural and remote areas and even those in metropolitan areas who are low telephone users will get very little benefit from a privatised organisation. Big business will be the main beneficiary.
Telstra ensures that all Australians have equity in the provision of telecommunications. This is extremely important as we move towards the information age. If people don't have equitable access, invariably the information poor will suffer. They will become the second-class citizens as telecommunications become more and more important in everyday life.
We are highly concerned that privatisation will have a significant impact on our members' jobs. In New Zealand, they went from a work force of 24,000 down to 8000 through moving into franchises. This has substantially disadvantaged working men and women in the industry, removing them from the protection of awards, leaving them prey to unscrupulous employers in the non-unionised sector.
Selling off valuable public assets that provide a return to the public and support the provision of education, health and social welfare will be cynically used as carrots to maintain people in power for the short term.
Question: Why do you think the Liberals are putting such a high priority on the Telstra privatisation?
They view this as important to help their mates, brokers and big business, who will gain a substantial amount of money.
It is quite clear that the Australian capital market could not support this in the short term, so there is a very substantial threat that we will be facing foreign ownership. The market was seen as too small to handle the Optus float, so they extended the foreign ownership laws.
Question: What is the best way to fight this privatisation?
We have to work on a number of levels. At the community level, we have to raise the threats to equity in the provision of telecommunications. Universal service obligations will be put under pressure when an organisation acts purely for the interests of its shareholders.
There is also the effect on employment, particularly in rural environments. There will be an attempt to reduce staff in order to reduce running costs associated with universal service obligations. Hence the quality of service in those areas will also diminish.
Our members are becoming very clear about the implications. Through the Financial Review it has been made clear that the government is looking to reduce staff by 24,000 over 18 months. These job reductions are based on world's best practice dictates that there are so many employees per 1000 lines of equipment. They are not based on proper accountability because the measures of comparison are not equal between various countries.
The government has used Telecom US West as an illustration of best practice efficiency. But US West has many examples of poor customer service as a result of staff reduction.
Question: The ALP, Democrats and Greens have all expressed opposition to the sale. However given the ALP's record on privatisation such as the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, and the enormous pressure that will be brought to bear on the minor parties, how can we ensure they keep to their promises?
The ALP's contradictory policy of privatisation has had a significant impact. The public determined that they could not be trusted not to follow suit with Telstra.
The only way the union can impact on the ALP is to ensure that it keeps to its word. We have done that quite strongly. We are now assured by the ALP that they will defend Telstra because they don't see Telstra as a Commonwealth Bank or a Qantas but as a unique organisation providing services to all Australians.
In terms of the Democrats and the Greens, and across all political parties, we need to ensure that they are given clear messages of support from those opposed to the privatisation. We need to develop a campaign to strengthen that public support.
Question: Given that a number of recent polls have shown that support for public ownership is dropping, how can we win back public opinion?
With the support of other trade unions and through organisations such as KTPA, we can a get message out to the broader community. Unfortunately, given the concentration of media ownership in this country, it is extremely hard to get an opposing view presented in the mainstream media.
It's unfortunate that people who are supposed to look after rural constituents such as the National Party and the National Farmers Federation haven't been supportive of Telstra remaining in public ownership because it is their constituents who are likely to suffer most under a privatised Telstra.