Synopsis

In March 2005 Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, put forward her plans for a regulatory overhaul, prior to the further privatisation of Telstra. These plans contain some good elements – strategies that will promote progress. However, we have seen many sound plans in the past, and the devil is, as always, in the detail. Only when an enforceable implementation plan is generated, with measurable outcomes, will we see any real progress. Without this it will be just another whitewash, leaving us even further back on the information highway. However, the debate inevitably comes back to structural separation.