Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has made an official complaint to Telstra slamming them for failing to reconnect phone service to the Tully Meals on Wheels who have been without a landline for nearly two months. The outage has caused an enormous inconvenience to this vital volunteer service. After months of inaction, Mr Katter has called for an immediate resolution.

He said it was a disgrace that such poor customer service has been shown to such an important community organisation.

“I’d say there must be 100 organisations and individuals that are waiting weeks and months on end for Telstra to fix a problem and sadly today, you also need an internet connection, so a mobile phone is of no use to meet the needs of modern society.”

Mr Katter said the situation in Tully was just another example of a wider problem, which he predicted would happen back in the 1990s. It follows the Julia Creek hospital being left without a landline for a week in February, which Telstra fixed by flying a helicopter out in the floods after a call from Mr Katter.

“The Telstra reports keep failing and it gives me no joy to say ‘I told you so,” Mr Katter said

“And this situation demonstrates just how utterly ineffective you are as a member of a major party.

When the sale of Telstra was proposed, Mr Katter demanded time in the party room.

“I was enraged,” he said.

“There was simply no way we were going to get services in country towns.
“Almost every single one of the coastal Members of Parliament at the time – and I am one of them given my electorate starts in Cairns and goes down into Townsville’s northern beaches – we represent between 30-100 little towns and do you think those little towns that comprise a quarter of the population of Qld’s coastline (a tenth of its population overall), do you think those towns are going to get service by Telstra?

“Prime Minister Howard said ‘we are going to give you protection via our universal service obligation’, and I said, ‘PM, you will not be worth two bob, you will never get Mary Smith from Ingham her right to a telephone enforced against the biggest corporation in Australia(Telstra) no matter which laws you passed’.”

Very sadly, Mr Katter said he was proven 100 per cent correct and continued to be proven correct to this day.

“When you sell off your assets, you’re selling Australians out,” he said.

—ENDS—