Thursday October 4, 10:20 AM
Australian govt accuses Telstra of 'unprecedented' attack: report
SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian government on Thursday accused telecoms giant Telstra (Munich: 909947 - news) of launching a political attack on it unprecedented in the country's corporate history as a national election looms, a report said.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the firm, partly owned by the government, had taken lobbying to cut regulation too far by mailing material criticising her policies to its 1.6 million shareholders.
"They can target marginal seats at their peril because they are losing customers and they are losing the confidence of rural and regional Australia," Coonan told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The government trails in opinion polls ahead of an election expected to be held late November.
Coonan called on Telstra's board to rein in the company's management led by US chief executive Sol Trujillo, warning it could be punished for its "reprehensible" decision to play politics.
"They should be taking a strong stand here and reining them in and explaining to them that Telstra has a business to run," she said.
"It's a shame the chairman and the board of a major Australian corporation are prepared to lend their names and reputation to this kind of political campaign," she added.
The dispute stems from Telstra's decision last year to scrap plans for a multi-billion-dollar, high-speed broadband network after a battle with the competition watchdog over how much it could charge rival carriers for access.
Telstra group managing director Phil Burgess, part of the US management team that Trujillo installed when he took over in 2005, said Coonan's comments did nothing to address Australia's "broadband drought."
"It would be much better to focus on remedies and the national benefits of broadband everywhere," he said on in a statement.
"Instead responsible authorities engage in personal attacks and name-calling and try to stifle debate and lock out any voices that happen to criticise established policies," he added.
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