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This is a brief public summary of a phone discussion between GEERS DEWR
(Department
of Employment and Work Place Relations) representatives and Paul Davis on the
26th August 2003.

The following points were made by the department:

It is the desire of the department to provide GEERS assistance to the former
Open Tel employees, however the terms of the Open Tel DoCA are inconsistent with
the terms of the GEERS operational arrangements.

It needs to be understood that GEERS was established by the Federal Government
to provide a safety net for the entitlements of employees who have been
terminated due to their former employers' insolvency. GEERS was not set-up to
provide assistance to company's to restructure themselves. However, in certain
circumstances GEERS can provide assistance to terminated employees where a DoCA
has been entered into.

The circumstances in which GEERS assistance will be provided under a DoCA is
where the payment of all funds available under the DoCA follows the priority of
creditors as set in Sec 556 of the Corp Act. This would mean that the funds
available under the DoCA would be provided to meet employees entitlements
before other unsecured creditors are paid. Hence, if there are sufficient
available funds under the DoCA to pay all of the
employee entitlements then these funds should be directed at paying out the
entirety of the entitlements. On the hand, if there are insufficient funds to
pay-out all of the entitlements, then all available funds should be used to
pay-out as much of the entitlements as possible. In both cases GEERS assistance
would be provided to the fullest extent that the GEERS operational arrangements
stipulate. This means that assistance provided to
each employee would be determined by their salary level and not the amount
directed to them under the terms of the DoCA.

It should be noted that Sec 556 only directly applies to companies in
liquidation and a DoCA does not necessarily have to comply with priorities set
out in Sec 556. The DEWR has made it very clear to all insolvency
practitioners since March 2002 of the mandatory requirements of a DoCA, where
they wish to avail themselves of the provision of GEERS assistance for
employees. DEWR continues to state these requirements to insolvency
practitioners in each new case.

Former employees should aware of the Media Release from the Minister, the Hon
Tony Abbott MP entitled "GEERS Assistance For Open Telecommunications
Employees".
<p://www.dewrsb.gov.au/ministersAndMediaCentre/mediacentre/detail.asp?show=2677&\
creator=Abbott>
In particular the final paragraph which states:

"In the case of Open Telecommunications Ltd employees GEERS assistance will be
available if the deed of company arrangement agreed to by creditors is altered
to reflect the requirements set out in the GEERS Operation Arrangements."

It is correct to interpret this statement as saying that while the former
Open Tel employees GEERS claim has been found to be ineligible due to the
inconsistency between the DoCA and the GEERS requirements, they
would be reassessed and assistance could be provided , subject to the OAs, under
the following circumstances:

1. the OT directors agreed to change the DoCA in line with the GEERS operational
arrangements, OR

2. the DoCA fails before its terms have been fully met. Thus may occur for a
number of reasons including a court ruling resulting from any legal action, OR a
decision by creditors to liquidate the company.

Of course in the circumstances above the Department would need to take into
account the terms of the revised DoCA and/or any associated court order(s) in
assessing the eligibility of the former Open Tel employees
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