<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 06/02/2008, at 1:47 PM, Paul Brooks wrote:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">So the ACCC has 'assured' the Minister, and the Minister 'has assured' Telstra, that such a decision to declare the ADSL service (including ADSL2+) will not happen, as the ACCC's past public statements are that they see no compelling reason to declare ADSL.</div></blockquote><br></div><div>Interesting to look at the language the Minister used. If you parse it out </div><div>in the way he actually said it, you don't get assurances like that. </div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Rather, you get an ACCC chairman who has said:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "> the ACCC has made a number of consistent public statements relating to the regulation of wholesale access to ADSL services</span></blockquote><br></div><div>and the Minister using that to decide that:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">there is a high degree of regulatory certainty in relation to the ACCC's approach to wholesale ADSL2+ services</span></blockquote><br></div><div>Note that the Minister <i>didn't say that the ACCC chairman told him anything</i></div><div><i>about regulatory certainty. </i>The Minister reported that the ACCC chairman</div><div>said something totally orthogonal to the matter of whether or not Telstra</div><div>would get the regulatory certainty it was looking for.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>It's often interesting to examine these kinds of statements by looking at </div><div>what wasn't said, as well as what was.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Because the way it looks to me is that the Communications Minister and</div><div>Telstra have ganged-up on the ACCC, trying to force their will as a </div><div><i>fait accomplis. </i>At the end of the day, the Communications Minister can</div><div>say whatever he likes about regulatory certainty, but the Trade Practices</div><div>Act doesn't give him (or any other Minister) the authority to promulgate</div><div>determinations like this.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>It'll be very interesting to see what the ACCC has to say about that in the</div><div>next few days. In particular, if the ACCC has made a decision, why wasn't</div><div>it announced under their letterhead by Graeme Samuels? Are they likely</div><div>to be just as surprised about this outcome as we have been?</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div> - mark</div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">--</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Mark Newton Email: <a href="mailto:newton@internode.com.au">newton@internode.com.au</a> (W)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Network Engineer Email: <a href="mailto:newton@atdot.dotat.org">newton@atdot.dotat.org</a> (H)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Internode Systems Pty Ltd Desk: +61-8-82282999</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton" Mobile: +61-416-202-223</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></font></font></div></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>