Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to say a big thankyou to the people of Mont Albert who joined in my campaign to save their public payphone at the Mont Albert Village shops. Well done. A few weeks ago, a very community minded resident phoned my office because he had noticed that Telstra had placed a sticker on the payphone earmarking it for removal. This is despite the fact that countless locals use the payphone on a daily basis. Mont Albert has a fairly ageing population, and the phone is right next door to the train station. Young people and senior citizens in particular rely heavily on what is an essential service. But Telstra said it was not profitable enough to warrant its continued operation. Of course, Telstra did not bother to contact me about this, as it tried to draw as little attention to its plan as possible. As soon as I found out, I wrote to Telstra outlining my strong opposition to the phone’s removal. I also started a petition, which got a great response from the community. In a very short time, some 70 people signed the petition to keep the Mont Albert payphone going. This just goes to show that it is not just regional communities which rely heavily on public payphones.

A Telstra spokesperson actually had the nerve to tell one of my local newspapers that many people supported its decision to remove the payphone. I do not know where he got the idea from, because the reality is that countless of the Mont Albert residents use this payphone on a daily basis. Not everybody has a mobile phone and in emergencies, particularly at night when it is quiet, you cannot rely on someone being around with a mobile phone.

Thus, I was overjoyed when Telstra wrote to say it had reversed its decision. So with the help of people of Mont Albert we were able to save the payphone. This is a huge win for the community. It goes to show that people power is still alive and kicking and that ‘community’ is alive and out there, regardless of what people say about ‘community being dead’.

When I informed local residents of the good news, they were extremely pleased. One gentleman phoned to say how much he relies on the payphone. He is a senior citizen and not very mobile, so it takes him some time to walk to the shops. He does not have a mobile phone and he often needs to use the payphone, for instance, when he requires transport home. If Telstra had removed the payphone, he would have been stranded. Actually, what it would have done was ensure that he did not get out of his home any more and go down to the local shops, which he does on a daily basis. It is his bit of interaction with the community. Predominantly he is going down to the TAB—we will not condemn him for that—but it is his social outing and he relies on it to get out and about. It is keeping him vibrant, it is keeping him alive and it is keeping him connected with his community. If the payphone had gone, it would have stopped him doing that.

Another resident, Mrs Wheelton-Atkinson of Mont Albert, contacted me on this issue. She emailed:

Great news about the retention of the Mont Albert Station payphone. The hairdressers, who signed the petition, are very aware of the number of people using the phone.

I thank Mrs Wheelton-Atkinson for mentioning the good news on 3WBC 91.4FM, our local community radio station, on Anything goes with Ken Lyons. I would like to thank all those who signed the petition for their efforts. People are so busy in this day and age that it is great they took the initiative. It is proof that people really do care deeply about their community. There are too many people to name, but people like the Mackay family of Mont Albert did a great job and collected a number of signatures.

While this has been a very great victory for Mont Albert, sadly Telstra plans to remove almost 300 payphones in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs alone, including a number of other payphones in Chisholm. One of these is located at 271 Lawrence Road in Mount Waverley. I have just started up another petition to stop its removal. I hope we have a similarly successful outcome. I have also written to Telstra to voice my opposition to the removal of the payphone at Box Hill, near the corner of Elgar Road and Canterbury Road.

Telstra would not exist if it were not for the support of its millions of Australian customers. So it is extremely disappointing that it repays that support by removing essential services like payphones from the community. I will fight for each and every payphone in my electorate. I call on Telstra to listen to the people of Chisholm: we do not want you to take our payphones away. But I fear that with the full privatisation of Telstra, which I proudly voted against in this place, this is just the beginning of the downgrade and removal of essential telecommunications services. There is a need for services in the suburbs like there is everywhere else.