Telstra's Mass Offshoring Gamble Puts Australian Jobs, Data and National Capability at Risk.
Telstra isn’t just gutting its AI joint venture – it’s outsourcing Australia’s future systems.
Telstra’s latest onslaught on jobs goes deeper than the 209 Australian jobs it plans to cut from the Telstra–Accenture Data & AI Joint Venture.
More than 450 additional jobs across various service delivery teams are also under threat in a sweeping offshoring exercise that will hollow out Australia’s technical capability and endanger our sensitive data.
This mass offshoring push represents one of the most aggressive attempts yet to replace Australian technical expertise with cheaper overseas labour – and to do so under the cover of corporate restructures, shell companies and misleading narratives about “modernisation.”
Telstra cannot be allowed to get away with this.
A multi-front attack on skilled Australian jobs
Telstra has proposed to eliminate 209 Australian roles within the Joint Venture and move large components of data and AI work to India. This move will replace high‑skilled Australian workers with cheaper offshore labour
This is a disgraceful breach of trust. Telstra sold this JV as an investment in Australian jobs and capability – and after just one year they’re ripping it apart and sending work offshore. It’s calculated, cynical and completely unacceptable.
A further 450 cuts will impact some of Telstra’s most significant technology customers – including 367 from Telstra Enterprise and Service Delivery, alone.
These roles are responsible for designing and building Telstra’s future systems and those of some of its most significant customers – including government. Rather than developing new technology and AI capability here in Australia, Telstra has decided it’s better done elsewhere. That means we lose local skills, local expertise and local jobs and Telstra hands highly sensitive Australian data to foreign‑owned companies.
The national security risks are obvious – and Telstra doesn’t care
Australia’s Data & AI systems, especially those connected to telecommunications networks, involve vast volumes of sensitive data, including data relating to government agencies and critical infrastructure.
The JV restructure alone would offshore significant data‑related functions. Now, Telstra is expanding that offshoring risk into the very teams responsible for future system design, AI capability, and technical delivery.
This isn’t about AI taking people’s jobs. This is about Telstra handing over the development and ongoing management of critical systems to foreign‑owned corporations. In an attempt to avoid the usual political and public backlash that comes with such moves, Telstra is relying on a plan for Indian-owned Infosys to create a new Australian subsidiary – a move we say is clearly intended to mask what is, in substance, an offshoring decision.
Shifting this work to Infosys, raises serious and legitimate concerns about privacy, accountability and trust.
It will also have a significant impact on the future job security and long term protection of current terms and conditions of employment of any Telstra employee who accepts to be shifted across to the proposed Infosys subsidiary in the process.
Telstra publicly celebrates its Australian heritage. But when it's time to invest in skills and systems, it’s choosing foreign contractors.
It is dismantling decades of local expertise across core systems, AI development, data architecture and engineering and exposes customer data, potentially including government datasets, to foreign companies.
The CWU is demanding that Telstra halts its entire current job cutting agenda and come back to the table to genuinely consult and negotiate.
We say it must stop offshoring core systems, AI development and technical roles whilst guaranteeing that sensitive data will remain onshore.
Telstra must commit to continuing to build on Australian capability – not dismantle it.
This is a pivotal moment for Australia’s digital sovereignty. If Telstra succeeds in gutting its onshore capability now, the damage will be permanent.
To do so would not be modernisation, but a hollowing out of Australian expertise and a risk to our sensitive data.
Where to from here?
The CWU will continue to engage with Telstra through all formal consultation channels and will take all necessary steps to escalate our concerns around data security across appropriate channels – including continuing to engage with the media.
Members directly impacted by this announcement are also invited to attend an important briefing with the CWU leadership team at 6pm (AEDT) on Tuesday evening, 17 February.
To register to join this meeting, please click the following link before midday, 17 February:
https://cwucepu.survey.fm/telstra-job-cuts
Instructions on how to join the meeting will be sent to registered members on Tuesday afternoon.
We will keep members informed as this important issue evolves.
In the meantime, should you require any further information, please contact your State Branch Official for assistance.
