Labor Leader Kim Beazley is to be congratulated for adopting the Greens" policy of making Tasmania a single local call area, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.
"It"s three years since then Greens Leader Christine Milne called for all telephone calls within Tasmania to be charged as local calls.
"And it"s 18 months since she wrote to the state"s parties and interest groups proposing a joint campaign for a single local call zone.
"Labor has finally come to the party, and Mr Howard should follow suit", said Senator Brown.
"Tasmania is disadvantaged by having several STD charge zones with a population of only 470 000 while Sydney and Melbourne have a single zone each for populations of up to 4 million.
"Creating a single charge zone will give business a boost by promoting better networking and increasing the pool of potential customers who can be reached for the cost of a local call. It will remove inequities in access to the information super highway.
"Mr Howard should put Tasmania on line by lining up behind the Greens" initiative", said Senator Brown.
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