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'Howard's Bush Boy gets Telstra.'
Date: 29 July 2004
So Telstra has a new Chairman, a Mr Donald
McGauchie. What does it mean for the future of our
members in Telstra and the general public who have
the controlling interest in the company?
Mr McGauchie comes with impeccable references
form the Federal Government's point of view.
The new Telstra Chairman has been at the forefront
of union busting in Australia. He was involved centrally in the conspiracy with Peter Reith, the then Howard Government Workplace Relations Minister, in attempting to sack, lockout and replace the MUA members on the waterfront with non-union labour. The new Chairman apparently is a strong supporter of the Howard Government's agenda to sell the rest of Telstra to the private sector and other aspects of the Howard Government's neo-conservative agenda.
If he carries such neo-conservative agendas into his new position, then what we can expect is further attacks on Telstra employees wages, conditions,rights and jobs, and a renewed campaign by the Telstra Board to sell the priceless Telstra asset to privately owned big business (most likely foreign owned,
like Optus). We can also expect a Telstra which continues to serve the interests of the big private institutional shareholders at the expense of investment and quality in Australia's telecommunications, countrywide.
If it is the hope of the Federal Government that MrMcGauchie (who comes from the bush) will put the
fears of the people in country and regional areas at rest over privatisation and the threats it poses to regional services, they live in a fool's paradise. A privatised Telstra will concentrate more and more on the high profit areas (look at AT&T in the USA) in the cities at the expense of all others, whether the 'boy from the bush' is Chairman or not, and let's face it he
hardly represents the battlers from the bush.
It seems to me that this is yet another appointment of a Howard crony to yet another top job. It is not likely to change anything for the better; let's hope it doesn't get too much worse.
For further information
| Contact: |
Len Cooper
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| Union: |
CEPU Victorian branch
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| Phone: |
03 9387 3703
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| Contact Mobile: |
0438 389302
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| WWW: |
http://www.cepu.asn.au
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