Question without Notice:

Telstra: Services and Sponsorship

Senator HARRIS (2.25 p.m.) —My question is to Senator Alston, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Has Telstra incorporated a use-by date into phone cards or do they intend to insert a use-by date? If a person purchases a phone card for emergency use, would that use-by date ultimately have the potential to make it unavailable in an emergency? Is it true that Telstra shut down the Easymail service as of 13 March 2002, and is it correct that Telstra is providing quite considerable sponsorship for racing cars?

Senator ALSTON —I am not sure I can give precise answers to any parts of those questions. They do not consult me about sponsorship, for example. I would have thought that they should be sponsoring Collingwood, but there is probably a conflict of interest there.

Senator Conroy —Shows you what a judge you are.

Senator ALSTON —One can only advise in these matters. Whether they are sponsoring some racing car event, I can find out for you, Senator Harris. As far as expiry dates on phone cards are concerned, all I can think of is that there are pre-paid cards that you can purchase which expire when you run down the stored value of that card, but I do not see why there would be a card that would simply expire by a fixed date irrespective of use. I will check it out, but it sounds unlikely to me. As for shutting down Easymail by a particular date, I recall that, as a result of a fairly lively media debate, Telstra extended the closure date of that service by about six weeks. I think we also required them to make inquiries about the number of small businesses and people operating from home who might be affected by the fact that it would not be possible to relay an email through to a new email address. I think that matter was also dealt with in a satisfactory way, but I will see if I can find some more information for you.