Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and it follows from my question on Tuesday relating to the issue of equivalence of service prior to a switch-over from the CDMA network to the Next G network. Is the Prime Minister aware of evidence given at Senate estimates by Mr Giles Tanner, from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, that the equivalence of service determination will be based on a ‘truck based sample audit’ over an eight-day period that does not include Western Australia, the Northern Territory or Tasmania? Mr Tanner also said that, although the audit was on secret roads, Telstra had a general idea of what the authority was doing. Does the Prime Minister believe that this sort of micro-sampling is adequate, or does the Prime Minister agree with Dr Rod Badger, from the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, who in answer to a question from Senator Nash about the network changeover timetable said the process was looking ‘dodgy’?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the first part of the question is: no, I am not aware of it—and therefore I cannot answer the second part of the question. But I will examine the material the member has raised and write to him about it.