Five good reasons why the government should not own half of Telstra

Community service obligations such as price caps, the customer service guarantee and untimed local calls are imposed by Parliament through the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act. These obligations are unaffected by the recently tabled Telstra sale legislation, as even a cursory glance should make clear.

Telstra's universal service obligation, which requires it to provide and maintain a standard telephone service for all Australians, is not unique to this country. Industrialised countries around the world require the dominant carrier to cross-subsidise services to otherwise uneconomic areas outside metropolitan boundaries.

The USO model is a direct replica of a long-standing arrangement emanating from the United States, which has never had publicly owned telecommunications companies.

In other words, parliaments the world over accept the need to guarantee basic services irrespective of ownership, and not one has ever proposed changing them.

Government and Parliament will always retain the ability to regulate the telecommunications landscape. I do not know of one politician who would even think of watering down the current regulatory regime. The Coalition has established some of the world's toughest telecommunications consumer safeguards and strengthened them where necessary. This will not change, whoever is in government.

In a modern and dynamic telecommunications environment, it is competition that drives new services and lower prices and regulation that provides the safeguards to protect consumers.

Since Australian telecommunications were opened up to full competition six years ago, the number of phone companies has increased from three to 89, the quality and range of services has improved out of sight and the average price of phone calls has fallen 25 per cent.

Virtually every country in the world now sees the virtues of governments not running phone companies, given that consumers can be adequately protected through strict safeguards and a competitive environment.

The government part-owning Telstra adds nothing to Australian telecommunications, other than continuing uncertainty and a $30 billion conflict of interest that is akin to the chief steward owning the red-hot favourite in the Melbourne Cup.