The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced it has commenced an investigation into Telstra Corporation Limited.

The investigation comes after the opposition reportedly made a complaint to the ASIC that Telstra should have made public, potentially market sensitive financial information which it made available to the Government about a month ago.

The investigation also comes after a furore erupted following remarks made by Sol Trujillo import Phil Burgess, who said he would not recommend Telstra shares as an investment to his mother.

Reacting angrily to the remarks, Senator Helen Coonan told the media that if the situation was that serious it may be something that the company needed to inform the Stock Exchange about.

Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo called Coonan’s bluff making a statement to the Exchange which claimed that existing (or planned) regulatory controls imposed on it by the Government would cost the carrier more $850 million dollars.

However, The Labour party has claimed that Telstra informed the Government of these figures as much as a month ago. If this is the case, Telstra could be seen to be guilty of failing to comply with the Exchange’s continuous disclosure obligations.

ASIC has announced it will cooperate with the Australian Stock Exchange in relation to its investigation into the earnings downgrade announcement.