It seems that the government’s plan to achieve structural separation of Telstra are not going to make it through the Senate this year. Hours of debate over the CPRS (Continue Polluting Regardless Scheme) has meant the bills will now sit in the todo list until next year.
Of course the bills were part bluff to start with. Conroy was using two devices to get Telstra to talk, one was the threat of legislation, the other was in the form of government approval of RF spectrum sales. Between these two measures Telstra has very little option but to accede to the governments wishes. However as the CCC notes in their press release almost a month ago, the proposed bill includes scrutiny of any deal done between the government and Telstra by the ACCC. A deal done under existing laws is effectively outside of this provision.
So what? Well as the CCC puts it rather bluntly, there is a lot of potential here for a handshake deal done in secret while the bills languish over the summer recess. Telstra is no fan of the ACCC and would no doubt prefer a deal with the government that avoided the scrutiny of the ACCC. It also means that public benefits from competition might be traded away in such negotiations leaving Telstra in a stronger market position than it might otherwise have been.
Still with all the media attention on the Liberal party and the CPRS, it’s easy to see how this little matter might have escaped their otherwise eagle eyed vigilance of government business.
