Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the chamber today to express my extreme anger at the decision by Telstra to close the Beach Road, Maroochydore call centre in about eight to 10 weeks, along with another call centre at Cairns in Far North Queensland. I appreciate that Telstra operates as though it is a private company, that for many years it has been corporatised and that these decisions are, as far as the management of the company is concerned, handled by the board of directors. But, as the local member, I was very annoyed that there was no sense of consultation and there was no talking to the local staff. The decision to close the award and winning call centre came right out of the blue. An announcement was made late on Tuesday, and I have to say that this decision is entirely unacceptable.

I do not understand why Telstra would look at closing a call centre in a rapidly growing area like the Sunshine Coast or, for that matter, in Cairns. These call centres have highly skilled people and, while I am aware that because of the high level of skills of the people at the call centre many of them will be offered jobs quickly, the timing of the Telstra announcement was absolutely appalling. I understand that 83 Sunshine Coast families will have a bleak Christmas insofar as the jobs will come to an end very close to the yuletide season.

Telstra clearly is diversifying in a range of ways, but I am quite sure that Telstra will not be diversifying into a public relations consultancy business. It is one thing for the chief executive of Telstra to be paid such an enormous amount of money—and it is a matter for the board of Telstra as to whether he is worth that; I have to say, looking at the performance of Telstra, that I find it interesting that the board has clearly gone through that process and come to that decision, but I recognise that the board of Telstra does in fact operate the Telstra company—but I thought it was absolutely appalling that, without consultation with the workers, without consultation with the local community and without consultation with local members of parliament and local councils, such an appalling and outrageous decision was announced by Telstra, which will see the breadwinners of 83 coast families no longer bringing home pay packets.

Not only will this affect the 83 families who lose their jobs on the Sunshine Coast and about the same number at Cairns but there will be a multiplier flow-on effect for the Sunshine Coast economy. These people who work at Telstra shop locally, go to local restaurants and use local services, so the effect on the broader community will be very substantial.

I think it is unfortunate that Telstra is able to make these sorts of announcements without taking into consideration the effect on local people and local communities. I have been telephoned by quite a substantial number of people who are losing their job. It is rather interesting, actually. Those people who are losing their jobs I think got advice only yesterday that they were being offered discounted shares in the T3 offer. They are obviously part of the family for one purpose but not part of the family for another purpose.

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you recommending that they buy?

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a decision that individuals in our Australian community will have to make with respect to investing in Telstra. Telstra has said that those staff who face job losses will be offered redundancy packages, that where possible alternative employment will be given—hopefully on the Sunshine Coast—and that there will be assistance from Telstra to help the employees find positions with other employers. When I was telephoned by Jason Law, the Telstra Country Wide manager, who I must say does an absolutely outstanding job—he was the messenger; he was notified and had no role in this decision—I asked him whether the jobs were being exported to Bangalore in India. But I was told that that was not the case and that Telstra does not actually have offshore call centres.

To sum up: this is an appalling decision which adversely affects the financial situation of coast families who have undertaken commitments and bought houses with the expectation of an ongoing role with Telstra. Telstra’s public relations exercise is appalling. The board stands condemned.