Senator Joyce said today that he was most disappointed with the current announcement to retrench 16 staff at the Roma Call Centre.

“I realise this is a management decision and would be part of Telstra cost restructuring regardless of the recent Telstra Sale legislation. However I have had numerous lobbying visits by Telstra prior to the vote on the remaining sale, all these visit assured me that Telstra had the “bush at heart,” Senator Joyce said.

“When Telstra made its decisions to cut jobs they did not have the bush at heart. They should use the technology that they say will look after the bush to keep the jobs in the bush and services up to scratch.”

“As the government still owns 51.8% of Telstra it is not by reason of ownership that this decision is made, it is by reason of management.”

“I am sure Telstra would have done this no matter which way we voted on the sale but in their continual lobbying they never once mentioned that this was on the cards.”

“I am happy that we have strengthened the licensing conditions and can now use those new conditions as a means of dealing with this issue. These conditions were not in place prior to the passage of the Telstra Sale legislation.”

“The Telstra Regional and Rural Presence Plan is part of these conditions and is currently going before the Minister. It is now very apparent that we will have to be very prescriptive about the requirement for jobs to remain in Regional Australia as part of these conditions.

“I have contacted Bruce Scott, The Nationals Member for Maranoa and will be working with him to follow this issue through.”

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