Dividend irrelevancy is not as pertinent here because of our...

Dividend irrelevancy is not as pertinent here because of our much smaller market and also the maturity of Telstra within that market. Earnings are best retained for growth but Telstra is the dominant incumbent and has no bread and butter growth left. An academic paper done in NSW also showed that mature Australian companies deliver much higher total returns when payout ratios are higher, these higher payout ratios guard against a one trick pony trying and failing repeatedly to be a two trick pony. If you are really interested I can probably track down the study.