Telstra today filed documents in the Federal Court that clearly indicate the
Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, has breached her
Ministerial duties by making up her mind about the imposition of the licence
condition to block the closure of the old CDMA network - an integral part of
the Next G network plan - even before receiving submissions and evidence
from Telstra as to why such a licence condition was unnecessary and bad for
the bush.

The Minister was legally obliged to maintain an open mind on the question of
whether to impose a licence condition until she had received and considered
Telstra's submission 30 days after announcing the draft.

Group Managing Director of Telstra Public Policy and Communications, Phil
Burgess, said Telstra would not stand by and watch the Government slow the
deployment of the Next G network which already brings the largest and most
advanced mobile broadband services to 98.8 per cent of Australians at speeds
that are not beaten anywhere in the world.

Dr Burgess said Telstra had been forced to take legal action against the
Minister following mounting evidence that the Minister seems determined to
hamper the Next G network broadband deployment by prejudging the outcome of
her consultation with Telstra on the draft CDMA licence condition.

   "The scent of election politics rather than advancing consumer interest
unfortunately permeates all of the Minister's recent policy decisions," Dr
Burgess said.

   "It appears that the Minister is again putting politics before common
sense and bureaucratic process and red tape before the interests of people,
business, and regional infrastructure - just as she did with the SingTel
OPEL Broadband Connect decision, which gave nearly $1 billion of Australian
taxpayers money to a joint venture dominated by the government of Singapore.

If successful, the legal action will stop the Minister from issuing a
licence condition until the matter is heard.