FEDERAL Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has fast-tracked the inquiry process into Warrnambool’s devastating telephone exchange fire.
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The first community public forum will be in less than a fortnight on December 17 at the Lighthouse Theatre from 10am to noon.
Others will be held early next year in municipalities across the south-west.
Chairman of the Regional Telecommunications Inde-pendent Review Committee Rosemary Sinclair will facilitate the Warrnambool forum.
“The government wants to hear the views of affected communities as soon as possible,” Senator Conroy said yesterday. He said the forums were designed to learn of the impact on the local community as part of the overall inquiry which he announced last week after lobbying from Wannon MP Dan Tehan.
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu will today meet mayors and chief executives from six municipalities to hear how the Telstra exchange fire on November 22 affected their communities.
The cumulative economic impact is estimated at about $100 million with Warrnambool’s cost alone calculated at $2.5m a day.
Mr Baillieu aims to personally take the issue to Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting tomorrow and Friday.
His office told The Standard yesterday he was unable to fit in a visit to the damaged exchange in his tight schedule today, but had invited the region’s municipal leaders to meet him in Mortlake where he had a prior engagement to officially open the new power station.
He invited mayors and chief executives from Warrnambool City, Moyne, Glenelg, Corangamite, Southern Grampians and West Wimmera shires to meet with him. Mr Baillieu will be accompanied at the meeting by Regional Cities Minister and member for South West Coast Denis Napthine.
