23 July 2007
Throughout the life of the Howard Government - the Singapore Government, through it's Australian subsidiary SingTel Optus, has been a major donor to the Liberal Party of Australia.
Every year SingTel Optus has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party - in stark contrast to Telstra which has a long standing policy of not making political donations.
Now it appears SingTel is being more than repaid for its generosity.
First came the Howard Government's decision to donate almost a billion dollars back to Singapore through the "Broadband Connect" program. The Government's decision to enter secret negotiations with SingTel has already been criticised by the Auditor General. Within days SingTel announced it would invest the same amount of money being given to it by the Howard Government to buy a share in a new mobile phone carrier in Pakistan. All just a coincidence of course.
Meanwhile hundreds of small towns and rural communities around Australia are missing out on high speed broadband, because SingTel Optus prefers to invest in Pakistan and refuses to use its Australian subsidy to provide coverage in towns other than those where Telstra has already invested in infrastructure.
Next came the Government decision to fund a "Broadband Connect" website, which was skewed to promote SingTel Optus and leave Telstra out altogether. It pretended SingTel Optus was the major provider of broadband in Australia, as if the company owned by 1.6 million mums and dads in Australia simply didn't exist.
As if this sorry record wasn't bad enough, now it seems obvious that SingTel Optus is dictating policy to the Howard Government.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported (21 July 2007) that if Telstra decided not to invest in a new Fibre network, the company would be further penalised by the Howard Government.
The warning came from the SingTel Optus regulatory chief Paul Fletcher - himself an aspiring Liberal Party politician, in a briefing to journalists.
"Mr Fletcher, who returned to work this week after missing out on Liberal Party pre-selection for a federal seat, issued a veiled warning to Telstra that it faced adverse regulatory changes if it did not take part in the tender process," The Sydney Morning Herald reported (21 July 2007).
Clearly SingTel is now so close to Minister Coonan and her colleagues in Canberra, its company officials feel they can speak for the Government.
Australians should hope for change very soon that puts the interests of Australians first, rather than bending over backwards to appease Singapore.
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