[LINK] Telstra accounting separation

[Deus Ex Machina]

Craig Sanders [cas@taz.net.au] wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 27, 2002 at 03:54:14PM +1000, Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> > the government has a clear conflict of interest which it has never
> > addressed and will do nothing about until it dumps its stake in
> > telstra.
> 
> that's a bit like suggesting that the best "cure" for a serial killer's
> desire to kill is for them to go ahead, kill someone, and get it out of
> their system....for a while.
> 
> the government's desire to privatise *IS* the conflict of interest.
> their obsession with privatisation is blind irrational ideology that
> flies in the face of both reality and what's best for the people of
> australia.

I dont agree, the government has gone out of its way to protect as quietly
as possible the stake of the millions of mums and dads holding a dog of stock
like telstra. it exerts no influence at board level that can be discerned
to cause the telco to behave in an ethical manner in the market place and
promises but never delivers on actions that would expose telstra to cold winds
of competiton. telstra is not overly well run (sorry ziggy) and still has no 
real taste of competition and has used every dirty trick in the book to
ensure it dominates adsl at the expense of the rest of the market. the margin
between telstra adsl wholesale and retail are waffer thin and ensures only telstra
can make money in this marketplace.

the government should dump its stake and force the division of wholesale and retail
so the rest of us have a chance to compete on a level playing field. since
its mild exposure to competition telstra has cut costs dramatically and still managed
to produce record profits which hints at the amazing inefficiency that existed and
still exists within telstra.

someone in our office once said: you could replace 90% of the staff at
telstra with random people off the street and not discern any change in service quality.

there is nothing irrational about the government wanting to dump telstra, the inexorable
progress of technology means it would be competing with the private sector in a big way
and now that is *irrational*

Vic

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