[LINK] McCrann calls on Latham to gazump Howard on Telstra

[Russell Ashdown]

The fall-out from Telstra's aborted takeover bid for Fairfax 
continues.  Not only are Bob Mansfield and Ziggy Switkowski in the 
boardroom hot seats, but the whole sorry saga has acted as a lever to 
reopen the whole privatisation issue, although not in a way that 
Howard and Co. would appreciate.

Taken into consideration with recent bad business decisions and the 
pitiful performance of Telstra shares, the less than poor judgement 
displayed by Mansfield and Switkowski must now call into question 
their suitability to occupy the positions that they do in Australia's 
largest company.

In today's "Business Sunday" program on channel 9, Terry McCrann came 
out in support for the "de-privatisation" of Telstra and the 
splitting off of the network which he said should not be privatised 
but should remain in the government's hands.  He called on Mark 
Latham to put forward a policy to retain "the network" in government 
ownership.

Hopefully, Latham will show he has more spine than Lindsay Tanner who 
floated this idea on 23rd May 2002 and was promptly rolled by Labor 
heavies.

It is time to end amateur night on the Telstra board and focus on 
adding value for the shareholders and customers.  It is also time for 
the government to act and split off "the network" to allow Telstra 
and ALL other telco's to compete on a level playing field.

Goodness gracious, it is about time that Telstra was denied using the 
"line rental" rort (for the CAN that was fully paid for by the 
Australian taxpayer decades ago) to cross-subsidise the follies of 
its parlous management.  This, more than anything else would force 
the ailing telco to stand on its own two feet and compete in the 
marketplace.  It would also stimulate full and fair competition.

Russell Ashdown