AUSTRALIA

STATEMENT BY Mr. Colin Oliver
general manager, department od communications, information technology and the arts

Mr Chairman, Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Congratulations to you, Mr Chairman, on your election and thank you for welcoming us to this beautiful area of Turkey. The beaches and weather remind us very much of Australia, and of the warm welcome given to hundreds of Australians with a special reason to come to this country every year. Every April in Australia we recall a difficult and important time for both our countries in 1915 – and we deeply appreciate the friendship and advancement that grew out of those hard times.

Australian governments have been participating in the ITU and its predecessors for close to 130 years. We maintain a strong commitment to the ITU and believe in its importance in supporting cooperation across national borders on telecommunications and radiocommunications matters.

The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference is a key event at which we can all help to shape and secure the future role of the ITU and its ability to support the development of telecommunications worldwide. It is also an important event for us to reach agreement and build a consensus on these issues.

We recognise that the federal structure of the ITU derives from its history. In particular, at the turn of last century telegraph, telephony and wireless services were overwhelmingly provided by governments or were subject to strong regulations. Then in Melbourne, Australia, in 1988 the International Telecommunication Regulations were created to bring together the telecommunication services; although this was at a time when liberalisation of telecommunications was still at an early stage.

In 1992, the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference held in Geneva was the next significant event for the Union as far-reaching structural reforms were adopted by Member States. This Conference also resulted in the adoption of a permanent Constitution and Convention for the ITU, rather than recreating the ITU’s treaty-based instruments every four years.

In this fourteenth year since the 1992 Conference, it is worthwhile pausing to consider our role as custodians of these treaty-level instruments and our responsibilities during a Plenipotentiary Conference. While the ITU Constitution and Convention have remained relatively stable over this period, the nature of the Plenipotentiary Conference has changed – the focus is increasingly on preparing the ITU for the next quadrennium. As we are aware, these preparations are focused on setting the general policies, adopting the strategic and financial plans and electing a management team for the next four years.

At this Conference we will also be considering issues concerning the future mandate of the ITU, the nature of the treaty-level instruments and the relationships between the ITU’s sectors and with external organisations.

It is important that, as we consider these issues, we seek to build a consensus in a number of key areas:

• We need to build a consensus on the key functions and achievements that justify a modern role for the ITU.

• We need to build a consensus on those elements of the ITU’s functions that require specific government support at treaty-level – for example, the core issues of mutual obligation and resource coordination .

• We need to recognise that there are other functions that require a different process for negotiating change – particularly the ITU’s broader standardisation and capacity building activities.

• We also need to build a consensus on the appropriate scope for state and sector member participation in these different areas of activity.

We believe that the ITU would suffer if changes to its treaties were made without consensus. We welcome the opportunity that this Conference provides to develop an understanding and agreement on the future of the ITU for the next quadrennium and beyond.

Thank you.