Telstra-Space X agreement is not welcome news in every corner of Australia

 

Moon, Four Planets, and Emu

an Aboriginal Astronomical constellation that's outlined by dark areas of the Australian night sky. NASA Science, 8 February 2019

Nominally Australian telecommunications corporation Telstra Group and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp aka SpaceX have one thing in common – they both frequently charge too much for the often below par telecommunications/internet services they offer.

Now they have reached an agreement which will likely see the Australian consumers paying more for certain Telstra bundles…..

Telstra Group Ltd, TELSTRA EXCHANGE, 3 July 2023:

In a world-first offering, Telstra will be able to provide home phone service and Starlink broadband services to Aussies as a bundle offer, as well as local tech support and the option of professional installation.

This agreement also provides connectivity options for our business customers, with a higher bandwidth business option available in areas without fixed and mobile connectivity. The business offer will be available to purchase from Telstra both locally and in select countries overseas.

We’re expecting to be able to offer this to customers and businesses towards the end of 2023, when we’ll also be able to share our unique pricing and plan details as well as how basic voice calls will work with our modem which will be offered with the service.

Our network currently uses a mix of technologies to provide voice and broadband services in rural and remote Australia, including nbn fixed broadband, our mobile network and older copper and radio networks.

The addition of Starlink will provide an additional connectivity option for people and businesses in rural and remote locations where distance and terrain make it difficult to provide quality connectivity with existing terrestrial networks.

One of the benefits of LEO satellites are that they are much closer than geostationary satellites to Earth with multiple satellites that are a part of a “constellation”, allowing them to send and receive signals much faster. As well as offering great data throughput, the proximity of these satellites reduces latency making them a great and more consistent option for services that need low latency, like voice and video calls.

The latency, download speeds and general experience in most circumstances will be far superior to copper-based ADSL and be better suited for most modern connectivity needs. Our team has been testing out in the field Starlink’s service and how we can best offer it to customers, including evolving our own modem specifically to support Starlink connectivity and Aussie households. We’re extremely excited to show you what this looks like later in the year….

BACKGROUND

Australian National University, 20 July 2019:

Aboriginal people in Australia have a rich astronomical tradition such as the "Emu in the Sky" constellation of dark clouds, and stories about the Sun, Moon, and stars, revealing a great depth and complexity of ancient Aboriginal cultures. Not only did they know the sky intimately, but they were familiar with planetary motions, tides, and eclipses. Their songs and stories show that Aboriginal Australians sought to understand their Universe in a similar way to modern science. They used this knowledge of the sky to construct calendars, songlines, and other navigational tools, enabling them to navigate across the country, trading artefacts and sacred stories....

Australian National University, 20 April 2022:

Mega-constellations are groupings of satellites that communicate and work together as they orbit Earth.

Since 2018, the Starlink project, run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has launched about 1,700 satellites into low Earth orbit. The company plans to launch another 30,000 over the next decade.

British company OneWeb has launched nearly 150 satellites, with plans for another 6,000. And Amazon intends to launch an additional 3,000 satellites into multiple orbits.

Each of these companies is taking to the skies to increase internet access across the globe. But even if they deliver on this, sky gazers — and especially Indigenous peoples — are left to wonder: at what cost?....

Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites in particular – by sheer weight of numbers contained in some of its own mega-constellations – are reportedly distorting astronomers’ observations.

Currently SpaceX is said to have 3,500 operational satellites in low Earth orbit.

VOX, 29 January 2020:

In the predawn hours of November 18, 2019, Northwestern University astronomer Cliff Johnson noticed a huge swarm of unfamiliar objects streaking across the sky.

That night, Johnson was surveying the Magellanic Clouds — two very dim dwarf galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way galaxy — with the telescopes at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. These galaxies are teaching scientists how stars form, and what happens when two galaxies pass near one another. Johnson was watching them remotely, through a webcam at Fermilab outside of Chicago. “All of a sudden,” he says, “we just start seeing these streaks come across the webcam view. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

The streaks weren’t from the heavens. They were from Earth.

Over five minutes, a train of 19 satellites had crossed into the telescopes’ view, scarring the observation with bright parallel marks, and degrading their scientific value. It didn’t take Johnson and his colleagues long to figure out whose satellites they were: A week earlier, Elon Musk’s SpaceX had launched 60 small satellites into low Earth orbit. Johnson’s colleague, astronomer Clarae Martínez-Vázquez, who was also working that night, vented her frustration on Twitter.

“I am in shock,” she wrote…..

This is what the telescope’s camera caught.

Starlink satellites seen from CTIO. NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/NSF/AURA/CTIO/DELVE

Astronomers are accustomed to satellites occasionally passing into view — one at a time. They don’t ruin observations, per se. But it does take some effort to digitally remove them from the final image.

But 19 satellites? That was unprecedented, leading to 15 to 20 percent of the image being “completely lost,” Johnson says.

What’s more, Johnson worries that the swarm was an omen — of a future where just about every telescope observation conducted at twilight is marred by satellite streaks.

Soon, Earth may be blanketed by tens of thousands of satellites, and they’ll greatly outnumber the approximately 9,000 stars that are visible to an unaided human eye....

Telstra announced 15,000 public phones will be free to make calls within Australia to fixed phones and mobiles

 

Telstra Exchange, Telstra News, 3 August 2021:

I know payphones are also a lifeline for thousands of vulnerable Australians – the homeless, the isolated, those escaping domestic violence – and often provide their only link to critical support services and those that care about them.

Last year alone Australians made 11 million calls on payphones, including more than 230,000 calls to vital services like Triple Zero, so there’s no doubt payphones are already often the lifeline that’s there when it’s needed most.

Telstra’s purpose is to build a connected future so everyone can thrive. To deliver on this ambition we want to contribute to a better, more caring and more inclusive Australia, an Australia where people can reach out for help if and when they need to, or just connect if they feel like it.

The payphone network that we’ve been maintaining since the 1880s is a key part of that, and I’m delighted it’s now free for everyone to make calls anywhere in Australia.

Andrew Penn

CEO Telstra

Is Telstra selling customer location data? Did it ever specifically request permission from account holders?

https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/personal/privacy/pdf/sample-data-oct-2015.pdf

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 May 2018:

Telstra is making money by on-selling location data from its customers' mobile phones in similar deals to a partnership with the Bureau of Statistics that caused a public backlash last week.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics came under fire for partnering with the telco for a study in 2016, which used mobile phone data showing how many people were in particular suburbs hour by hour.

Similar data is now available for a fee, after the Location Insights program was quietly launched by the telco in July 2016. The Australian Bureau of Statistics was the first licensee under the program, but has not used Telstra's Location Insights since then.

Data available to Telstra's clients can be broken down into 15 minute increments, and demographics broken down by age groups and gender. The smallest geographic areas available for analysis are the same as the Australian Bureau of Statistics' smallest statistical area, which have an average population of 400 people and could have as few as 200 people.

In a video used to spruik the service by Telstra, potential customers are listed as local governments and transport companies. It’s not clear how many organisations have used the service, or what the price tag is for such information.

“Imagine if you could know what is happening in your community, region, or city hub, every 15 minutes,” a voiceover in the Youtube video promoting the program said.

“Telstra Location Insights builds industry-specific metrics where data sets are used for modelling purposes and then extrapolated to estimate for the entire population,” a Telstra spokesman said.

“These metrics are aggregated spatially and temporally before differential privacy and k-anonymisation are both applied to completely anonymise the data.”

This explanation is not accepted by senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne Vanessa Teague.

“In order to know whether those things actually work, we need to see what the parameters are and how they're applied to the data in order to be assured that they’re applied correctly and they work,” Dr Teague said.

Dr Teague is chair of the Cybersecurity and Democracy Network and was part of a team of researchers who re-identified patient health records from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data that was released by the government.

“It's possible that [anonymising the data] has been done correctly, it's also possible that they think it’s been done correctly but they’re wrong. And really the only way to assess that is to get a clear and detailed technical description of what they've done,” Dr Teague said.

“If they've done it right then there's no reason to be secretive about the details of what they’ve done, if they’ve done it wrong then they are better off getting a genuine open assessment of it so they can find out sooner rather than later.”

Telstra said the use of the information was in line with its privacy statement, which states that customers’ information could be shared with “our dealers, our related entities or our business or commercial partners and other businesses we work with”.

Dr Teague is sceptical about that explanation. “Just because a company holds highly sensitive information about you doesn’t mean that that data is their property that they should then be able to turnaround and sell without asking you,” she said.

Now when I read Telstra's privacy statement I do not recall that it mentioned that it would be selling mobile phone location information in SA1 statistical level data bundles captured at 15 minute intervals (as mentioned in the news article) and, that those bundles could be used to create data sets which track an individual's movements over time in relatively fine detail.

Yamba in the Clarence Valley NSW is a quiet little town with a population of approx. 6,076 persons living in 3,820 dwellings spread across est. 16 SLA1 statistical levels and in over 100 even smaller statistical Mesh Blocks.

http://stat.abs.gov.au/itt/r.jsp?ABSMaps 

I suspect that many Yamba residents will not be happy with the idea that Telstra Corporation Limited will alllow their movements to be tracked and their daily habits predicted if an individual, private company, government agency or political party pays them for the town's mobile phone location data.

Q. If Telstra steals est. $60 million, repays $5 million in compensation and is fined $10 million, leaving a profit of $45 million - how big are the telco’s performance bonuses this year?

Readers with a Telstra mobile phone account need to check that their phone was not set to ‘Premium Direct Billing’ before 3 March 2018.

Because although Telstra put out a media release there was no promise to proactively contact all mobile customers with this news below and, the telco will be be deciding which individual account holders (who have been overcharged for a service they did not consent to) will be contacted concerning compensation.

It is possible it will not manage to contact every customer who had been improperly charged. So if you suspect that you may have been then phone Telstra.

New Matilda, 27 April 2018: 

      

Ordinarily, when you get caught stealing, you have to pay the money back, and the punishment you receive is meant to dissuade you from stealing again.

Unless you’re a major Australian corporation. In which case, you can steal tens of millions of dollars from your ‘valued clients’, pay a fine that represents a tiny proportion of what you pinched, issue a few million in refunds… and then keep the rest.

Introducing Telstra and its third-party ‘Premium Direct Billing’ scam, which netted Australia’s biggest Telco a cool $45 million profit, after fines and refunds.

Yesterday, the Federal Court fined Telstra $10 million for the rip-off after it found that Telstra “did not adequately inform customers it had set the Premium Direct Billing service as a default on their mobile accounts. If customers accessed content through this service, even unintentionally, they were billed directly by Telstra”.

“Thousands of Telstra mobile phone customers unwittingly signed up to subscriptions without being required to enter payment details or verify their identity.

By introducing and operating the Premium Direct Billing service, Telstra generated substantial profits by exposing customers to unauthorised charges,” Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Rod Sims announced in a media statement.

The prosecution was launched by the ACCC with powers delegated from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. You might remember that sleepy Australian corporate watchdog from such scandals as the banking royal commission....

“Telstra estimates it has provided refunds of at least $5 million, and it will review any future complaints in light of this action and deal with those customers in good faith. The ACCC estimates further refunds may be in the order of several million dollars.”

Australian Privacy Commissioner grants journalist access to his own metadata withheld by Telstra in 2013

The Australian Privacy Commissioner has determined that metadata produced by journalist Ben Grubb’s mobile phone activity is personal information and ordered Telstra to allow him access to this type of data.

Unfortunately, changes* to the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 may mean that this determination might not support futures challenges in cases where a telecommunications company refuses access to an individual’s own metadata.

Ben Grubb and Telstra Corporation Limited [2015] AICmr 35 (1 May 2015): Determination and reasons for determination of Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim

Background

3. On 15 June 2013 the complainant claimed a right of access under the Privacy Act to ‘all the metadata information Telstra has stored’ about him in relation to his mobile phone service, including (but not limited to) cell tower logs, inbound call and text details, duration of data sessions and telephone calls and the URLs of websites visited……..

Summary

1. Telstra Corporation Limited (Telstra) interfered with the complainant’s privacy by failing to provide the complainant with access to his personal information held by Telstra in breach of National Privacy Principle (NPP) 6.1 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act).

2. To redress this matter, Telstra shall:

* within 30 business days after the making of this declaration, provide the complainant with access to his personal information held by Telstra in accordance with his request dated 15 June 2013, save that Telstra is not obliged to provide access to inbound call numbers;

* provide the complainant with access to the above information free of charge…….

13. I note from the outset that because this matter relates to events that occurred prior to reforms to the Privacy Act which commenced on 12 March 2014, the complaint has been dealt with under the legislative regime as it applied when the events occurred. The National Privacy Principles (NPPs) not the Australian Privacy Principles² therefore apply in this instance to the question of whether or not Telstra has breached the Act. The NPPs outline the standards for handling personal information that legally bind organisations.

Full transcript of this determination can be found here.

* The Privacy Act 1988 defined personal information as:

personal information means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

* Under the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 which amended the Privacy Act 1988, personal information is now defined thus:

personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

                     (a)  whether the information or opinion is true or not; and

                     (b)  whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

BACKGROUND

The Sydney Morning Herald 4 May 2015:

Monday marks 688 days since I first asked Telstra for the metadata generated by my mobile phone - the same information it routinely gives law-enforcement and intelligence agencies without a warrant when investigating crime.

Monday also marks the start of Privacy Awareness Week 2015, which usually goes by each year without too much fuss and, to be quite frank, is a little boring. But this year's Privacy Awareness Week is different.

You see, Monday also marks the day the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner hasmade public a landmark decision in relation to my battle with Telstra for access to my metadata.

You might remember how I detailed my tussle with the telco last year, in which I explained how spies, councils, the RSPCA and others could gain access to my phone's metadata but I couldn't, as Telstra was refusing me access.

I wanted access to the data in light of the data retention laws, which recently passed parliament, so that I could show Australians exactly what metadata was, considering not even George Brandis could explain it. I wanted to put my metadata on a map like German politician Malte Spitz did after he successfully sued his telco in 2011 to show just how invasive having all of your metadata stored was in the wake of mandatory data retention in his country……

Aunty ABC telling NSW something it's known for yonks - Telstra's copper wire is stuffed!

This was Aunty on the 23rd June 2013:

“Unions have told the ABC that Telstra's copper network is in a state of disrepair, with workers at the coalface of the infrastructure using plastic bags to protect cables from water.

The telecommunications pits have been nicknamed 'bag-dad' by contractors because of the plastic bags, that are in theory supposed to keep the water out.

The copper network is a crucial element of the Opposition's alternative broadband plan.”

It’s London to a brick that a quick phone survey across NSW regional areas would show that dodgy internet connections during heavy rainfall are par for the course.

On the North Coast the air would be blue in response because even landlines begin to get temperamental in the wet.

Abbott’s cut price version of the NBN will have us all paying higher prices for zero improvement to our internet connections.

Kevin Hogan looks for pies in the sky

Clarence Valley Review 29 May 2013:

Nationals candidate for Page Kevin Hogan has called for the Federal Government to push Telstra to decentralise jobs, after the telco locked in a $1.1 billion defence contract with the Commonwealth.
Mr Hogan says since Telstra shut down their Lismore and Grafton call centres and axed 220 jobs, it should be the number one priority of the Federal Government to spread the jobs back to the regions that need it.
The new contract is estimated to create 350 new jobs.
“Telstra says their Defence telecommunications network includes networks at 430 sites in Australia, but it’s as yet unclear where these new jobs will go,” Mr Hogan said.
“I think it’s only fair that the Northern Rivers get a look-in for this work, and I’m calling on the Federal Government to explore all options for returning telecommunications jobs to this region.” 

Oh dear, Kevin Hogan has not thought things through again. 

The 350 new jobs (many for leading IT, network and security experts) will be created for the six-and-half year life of this information communications contract and involve travelling around 430 sites in Australia.

How many of these sites are in the Page electorate?  

Well there appears to be an Army Reserve 41 RNSWR depot in Grafton, another in East Lismore and an RAAF air weapons range at Evans Head. That's it.

I doubt whether upgrading telecommunications for these part-time soldiers and for a training range used by airforce pilots located interstate is going to take long or involve a great many Telstra staff.

Hogan is also yet to explain why he thinks the Australian Government can tell a private corporation how to run its business, eg. spread the jobs back to the regions. 

Especially as the Commonwealth has not had a controlling interest in this telco for years - and its residual 17 per cent shareholding was transferred to the Future Fund in 2007.

Telstra and the Federal Coalition want you to continue to pay for privacy

Consumers Federation of Australia 28 May 2013:

In February, ACCAN welcomed Telstra’s move to waive the fee for people who are under a protection order or at risk of violence. However, ACCAN argued in its submission to a recent Senate Committee inquiry that this exemption is not enough and a Silent Line should be free for all consumers.

“Under Telstra’s policy, many people who rightly need a Silent Line will still be forced to pay the fee,” said ACCAN CEO Teresa Corbin. “It’s clear Telstra aren’t going to remove this fee for all consumers, which is why we’re calling on the government to act. We want to make sure all Australians do not have to pay for this privacy protection,” said Ms Corbin.

In the Senate Committee’s report, Labor and Greens Senators recommended the fee be banned, however a majority of Coalition Senators recommended against banning the fee……

Telstra has not said publicly how much revenue is collected from the Silent Line fee, however in 2007 a Fairfax newspaper estimated that the fee generates as much as $30 million annually. This conservative estimate is a small fraction – around 1/1000th – of Telstra’s annual sales revenue (over $25 billion FY 2011-2012).

Other providers like Internode, iPrimus and iiNet all charge their customers a Silent Line fee due to the costs passed on from Telstra. Optus charges a Silent Line fee when it resells a Telstra landline service, although it doesn’t charge a fee on its own service.

In 2008 the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended the fee be abolished.

POLITICIANS UNDERWHELMED BY TELSTRA CEO THODEY'S 'CORPORATE SPEAK'

 

 

 

Politicians underwhelmed by Telstra CEO’s ‘corporate speak’

 

LISMORE’S political leaders have been left ‘underwhelmed’ by Telstra CEO David Thodey’s ‘corporate speak’ response to their call for the telco to make a $3.4-million investment in digital infrastructure to compensate for the impending Goonellabah Call Centre closure.

 

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin, State Member for Lismore Thomas George and Lismore Mayor Cr Jenny have adopted a bipartisan approach to negotiating with Telstra management on getting the best outcomes for 116 affected local staff and for the district’s economy.

 

“David Thodey is not offering anything extra to the Lismore district and we are disappointed but not surprised given the ease with which he can change the lives of more than 100 local people so dramatically,” the politicians said in a joint statement.

 

“We had approached Mr Thodey in good faith and were hopeful that our request, based on a detailed consultant’s study which identified gaps in telecommunications infrastructure in the Lismore area, would be given serious consideration,” they said.

 

“We asked Telstra to make a significant additional investment in new fixed and wireless networks and in retraining for affected workers, but Mr Thodey maintained that planned infrastructure upgrades will provide customers with enough coverage and that redundancy packages are adequate.

 

“We asked for a partnership between Telstra and Lismore City Council to run a two-year program to increase the use of broadband by local businesses, but Mr Thodey referred us to NBN Co and the Australian Government’s general educational programs.

 

“The only concessions from Telstra are its sponsorship of a jobs market which was already taking place at the Goonellabah Sports and Aquatic Centre next Friday (October 19) and an agreement to consider allowing equipment in the call centre to be reused by another business if a new tenant can be found for the site.

 

“We have decided to release to regional media outlets all correspondence around our request to Mr Thodey for a digital infrastructure investment, so that the local community can get a clear indication of this corporation’s level of commitment to the regional city of Lismore.”

 

Thursday, October 11, 2012.

 

Saffin, George and Dowell see Lismore Jobs Market as offering a lifeline to soon to be sacked Telstra staff

 

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE FROM JANELLE SAFFIN MP, THOMAS GEORGE MP AND CR JENNY DOWELL

 

Jobs Market offers a lifeline to Telstra staff

 

LISMORE’S political representatives are calling on all district employers to showcase job vacancies at a Jobs Market on Friday October 19, aimed at keeping Telstra Goonellabah Call Centre’s 116 staff working locally.

 

Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin, State Member for Lismore Thomas George and Lismore Mayor Cr Jenny Dowell hope the Telstra Lismore Jobs Market at the Goonellabah Sports and Aquatic Centre may offer a lifeline to affected staff.

 

The event will be sponsored by Telstra in association with the Australian Government’s Building Australia’s Future Workforce Program, NSW Trade & Investment and Lismore City Council.

 

Telstra Area General Manager North Coast NSW Sue Passmore said: “We are supporting the jobs market in Lismore and will be doing what we can to make it a successful and productive day for our people, as well as other local residents and businesses.”

 

In a joint statement, Ms Saffin, Mr George and Cr Dowell said: “We are still reeling from the impending loss of the Call Centre jobs, but it’s important for our community to rally around and help these workers so they don’t have to leave our area. We need to show we care for these workers and do all we can for them and their families.”

 

“This is a highly skilled workforce, and we believed they needed to meet face-to-face with potential employers about real job opportunities close to home, before the Call Centre is due to close its doors on Tuesday October 23,” they said.

 

“The Jobs Market allows employers to hand out information about their businesses, collect resumes, and potentially even shortlist candidates to interview. Employers who cannot attend the Jobs Market can still post details of vacancies on the Telstra Lismore Jobs Board.”

 

To register as an exhibitor at the Telstra Lismore Jobs Market, employers should phone the event hotline on 0266 863 972 or visit www.telstralismorejobsmarket.com.au  Participation is free for exhibitors and attendees. Telstra employees will attend the Jobs Market in the morning and the afternoon session will be open to all local job seekers.

 

Greedy Telstra and Thodey receive another bagging for Northern Rivers job losses

Telstra in Commonwealth Hansard transcript on 10 September 2011:

Ms SAFFIN (Page) (22:13): I am still struggling to understand how Telstra can continue with its plan to close its Lismore call centre, which is based in Goonellabah, axing 116 jobs. I recently spoke in this place about Telstra's lack of corporate social responsibility and its lack of corporate conscience. Yes, it offers community awards and does sponsorships but, really, jobs must come first, not the other stuff. Corporate social responsibility is affected if you do not care about your own workers first.

A few things have transpired since I last spoke in this place. One of those is a community campaign that has seen over 5,000 people—I think it is now up to about 5½ thousand—sign a petition that reads:

We the undersigned citizens of the Northern Rivers call upon Telstra Business CEO Mr David Thodey to intervene immediately to halt any plan to axe up to 116 jobs of employees at Telstra Call Centre in Goonellabah.

We further object to Telstra abandoning its workforce in country Australia and moving jobs offshore, while recording massive profits ($3.4 billion) and awarding generous salary increases for executives.

With the community campaign for the petition a whole lot of people have been involved, particularly my husband, Jim, who has been out coordinating and doing the work on the ground, and I thank him for that.

But guess what? Two other things have happened that really, really rile me to do with Telstra. One is that in the midst of axing jobs not only in Lismore but also in Townsville and other places mooted around Australia—and who knows where else?—Telstra bosses gave themselves a pay rise. One local online comment in the Northern Star newspaper likened it to 'a reward for inefficiency and incompetence'. I had this to say about it:

… Telstra demonstrated this week that it does look after some on the payroll.

"Today local union members and community members organised a sausage sizzle outside the Telstra Call Centre in Goonellabah to protest against the closure.

"Telstra is proposing to close the centre next month with the loss of 116 jobs, and so far about 5000 people have signed petitions calling for Telstra to keep the centre open and save local jobs.

"I have complained to CEO David Thodey about the cruelty of the cuts, and asked him to treat staff well.

"I did not realise when he promised we would look after Telstra people that he meant to start at the top.

"In what is impeccable timing, Telstra's lodged its annual report with the Australian Securities Commission this week, and it includes the news that Mr Thodey is to receive an extra $247,000 in his fixed salary starting 1 October.

"The report shows that Mr Thodey's salary package, including shares and incentive payments, went from $5.1 million in 2011 to $7.69 million in 2012 and now it is to go up by about a quarter of a million.

"In fact, Telstra has found more than $7 million to increase the pay of its type nine executives in the past 12 months.

"And yet they say they have to make this difficult decision of cutting 116 jobs here in Lismore.

"The sad point is, it appears that the executives' incentive payments and share packages rise the more jobs they cut.

"No wonder so many people are outraged at this corporate heartlessness.

Today we also found out—I read it online in various places and also in the Sydney Morning Herald—that Telstra is getting another windfall, pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in future years due to the competition watchdog effectively cutting the price paid for each minute a phone call spends on another mobile network, from 9c to 6c. This 3c reduction gives Telstra $18 million. Did they pass it on to us customers? No. Maybe they used it to top up the CEO's and executive's salary rises.

Also, Telstra has increased mobile calls on basic phone plans from 35c to 36c. I also remember reading that they are increasing landline costs. There are two things I want to say. One thing about Telstra is that it is almost like it needs an independently funded ombudsman—a Telstra watch—maybe run through CHOICE or something like that so that it is transparent and we get good access. There are a lot of things happening there that we just do not know about. I have said to locals that it is hard when you are contracted with them. Start demanding that we get serviced by locals and that they have local jobs. It will not happen overnight— (Time expired)

Telstra CEO gets a no nonsense letter from Saffin, George and Dowell over Lismore job losses

PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Friday, August 24, 2012.

REF: PE.24.08.12.

Mr David Thodey

Chief Executive Officer

Telstra Corporation Limited

Level 40, 242 Exhibition Street

MELBOURNE  VIC  3000.

Dear Mr Thodey,

We write as the Federal, State and local representatives for the Lismore district to formally request that you intervene and reverse Telstra’s ‘business decision’ to close its Goonellabah Call Centre on October 23 this year.

We maintain that the loss of an estimated 116 local jobs from such a closure is not only unnecessary but unacceptable, particularly when Telstra’s digital business streams are reported to be enjoying strong growth.

We seek a full explanation from you; the real reasons which led Telstra’s management team to arrive at such a cruel decision despite earlier public assurances that this particular call centre was safe.

This morning, we stood united on Lismore’s main street – Molesworth Street – to launch a community petition calling on you to intervene immediately to halt any plan to axe your highly skilled and loyal workforce in Goonellabah.

The petition further objects to Telstra abandoning its workforce in country Australia and moving jobs offshore, while recording massive profits ($3.4 billion) and awarding generous salary increases for executives.

Surely, there is a better and more respectful way to treat your Lismore staff, most of whom have to service mortgages or other financial commitments and whose families have strong ties to this community.

During this three-week consultation period regarding the closure decision, we stand ready to negotiate with yourself or your appointed executives on alternative proposals for keeping the call centre operational and profitable for Telstra.

We ask that due to the doubt and uncertainty which employees are feeling about their futures, that Telstra executives travelling to Lismore not intimidate or dissuade staff from seeking advice from CPSU officials.

We seek Telstra’s full co-operation in providing a Rapid Response Team of Federal and State agencies with immediate and unfettered access to the call centre to advise staff on various levels of support available to them.

We provide two points of contact for the Rapid Response Team being put in place:

Mr Terry Watson, Local Employment Coordinator, Richmond-Tweed & Clarence Valley Priority Area, Building Australia’s Future Workforce – 0412 320 077; email terry.watson@deewr.gov.au

Mr Craig Jenkins, Business Development Manager, NSW Trade & Investment – 0411 248 482 or 0266 226 145; email craig.jenkins@business.nsw.gov.au

Mr Watson and Mr Jenkins are experienced public servants who liaised with Telstra during the Grafton Call Centre closure in late 2010.

We are also of the firm belief that two or three weeks is not enough time for staff, who are grieving the potential loss of their livelihoods through redundancy or the upheaval of transfers, to cope with such transition.

Consequently, we ask that the consultation period be extended, in good faith, to several months to allow for a proper, more transparent analysis of all options for keeping these jobs in the Lismore district.

We understand that you have a business to run, but we are appealing to your corporate conscience to do the right thing by your staff and customers here on the Northern Rivers and avoid the kind of public relations disaster which accompanied your withdrawal from Grafton.

Yours sincerely,

Janelle Saffin MP

Federal Member for Page.

Thomas George MP

State Member for Lismore.

Cr Jenny Dowell

Mayor of Lismore City Council.