Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it absolutely laughable that those opposite come in here and want to make it easier to privatise NBN Co. As the minister has said, there is one group of people in this parliament you should never take advice from when selling a telco—it is those opposite. There is one group who wrote the playbook on how not to do it—it is those opposite.

With these amendments they want to remove the very sensible protections that we have decided to put in there to make sure that a national piece of utility infrastructure is sold down in the national interest. The provisions in this bill will ensure that the government plays an important role in the sale when the government does sell down its interest.

The important issue is that we step away when the environment is right. The steps in this assessment include reference to the Productivity Commission. What a paradox it is indeed that those opposite are so ready to call on the Productivity Commission to prevent it from being built but then they do not want to call on the Productivity Commission to make sure that it is sold properly. These people want to reject assessments by the Productivity Commission, they want to reject parliamentary committee recommendations and they want to reject the ability for the minister to actually make an informed decision at the time of the sale to determine whether or not a sale is appropriate. Most importantly, the finance minister will need to declare—and there is a very strict process that is set out in the bill for the finance minister to declare—that favourable market conditions exist for a sale. How sensible is that? It is eminently sensible to ensure that when the sale is done it is done properly, it is done in the national interest and it does not adversely affect the national interest.

This is critical because there is the ability within this bill to ensure that the government can determine what is an unacceptable ownership or control situation. It is a very important constraint on the ownership of NBN Co. Again, these provisions reflect the government’s intention that NBN Co. be a national piece of utility infrastructure. We have heard the other side talk about what prudent investors would do in certain situations, but no prudent legislature would ensure its biggest piece of national utility infrastructure be privatised without considering the potential future of the industry. That is exactly what did not happen in the T2 and T3 sales.

In this process we are doing a very important thing in considering the role of government early in the process, and in the latter stages the role of the private sector. It is a well thought out plan which is documented in this bill before us. These are absolutely necessary protections to prevent what the coalition did to Telstra, the most productive outcome of which was to split the telco act into two and not much else. The most productive thing it did was to create more paper and split one telecommunications act into two.

These provisions will ensure that the selldown process is done in a managed way. It will ensure that it is done in a manner that reflects prudent investment and prudent financial judgment, and I urge all members present to reject the amendments that have been put before us, because they will simply repeat the mistakes of the past.

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