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Saw this in The Australian today and interested in members views.

COALITION MPs yesterday demanded the Howard Government step in and "sort out" Telstra by sacking its chief executive, Sol Trujillo, and chairman, Donald McGauchie.

From backbenchers to ministers, the Government is annoyed at Telstra's aggressive behaviour in breaking off talks with th competition regulator over a newmetropolitan broadband network.
Many in government ranks are now resigned to the idea that much of the remaining taxpayer-owned share of the company will be transferred to the Future Fund rather than sold in a retail float.

Sources told The Australian that Liberal backbencher Don Randall demanded the Government get rid of Mr McGauchie, saying he had "turned from poacher to gamekeeper, and not a very good gamekeeper at that".

Mr Randall told yesterday's partyroom meeting it was about time the Howard Government took a hard line with Telstra and "sorted them out". He said if Kerry Packer owned a company by 51 per cent he would control the company, and he urged the Government to do the same with its majority ownership of Telstra.

The chairman of the Government's communications backbench committee, Paul Neville, also spoke, suggesting the Government take a role in fixing Telstra's woes.

The call to sack Mr Trujillo prompted a sarcastic aside from one minister that it would cost $5million in a golden handshake if they did.

Queensland backbencher Peter Lindsay said Telstra's decision to walk away from the fibre optic network was a "disaster" for Australia.

"As much as others argue that broadband can be provided without fibre-to-the-node, true broadband cannot be provided without it. Australians deserve top shelf broadband and that can only be delivered by fibre optic cable. Without it we will be held back."

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said that while she was disappointed Telstra had pulled out of talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about the regulation of the fibre optic network, there were "a couple of furphies" surrounding the canned broadband plan.

"The fibre rollout would not have benefited all Australians ... but was only slated for major metropolitan cities and not even big regional cities such as Wollongong and Newcastle -- it wouldn't have even been in Darwin," she told the Senate. "The reality is that the fibre proposal is certainly not the only game in town here."

Telstra warned yesterday that Australia was at the bottom of the high-speed broadband pile, but the "fibre to the node" project was effectively "dead and gone".

Senior Telstra executive Phil Burgess said countries such as South Korea, Japan and the US were installing high-speed broadband systems that would effectively leave Australia for dead.

He said Telstra dropped the broadband project, saying pricing regulations demanded by the ACCC made it financially impossible. "You never say never, but it's dead and gone," he told Southern Cross Radio.

Senator Coonan said the ACCC was required by law to consider the costs of the investment and the infrastructure owner's commercial interests when setting access prices. "The ACCC has assured the Government that it has always been prepared to consider both fair and reasonable access terms."

Patricia Karvelas
AUGUST 09, 2006
The Australian

What's your views ?