Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Oh dear! Senator Joyce, I am sorry that you did not have as good a time. Wouldn’t they let you sit at a table with anybody? Did they make you sit by yourself, Senator Joyce? What we saw today reminded me of Animal Farm. It was Orwellian in its approach to the English language. Today we rejoiced: Senator Coonan was able to explain to the Australian public how good it was for pensioners to get a $60 increase in their fees. How good it was for them! It was unbelievable. They were better off under this government because they had to pay $60 extra! It is Orwellian. You belong in Animal Farm. We have a 43 per cent increase in the cost of putting on a phone, and the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts wants to tell us that we are better off under this government. We have a $60 increase for pensioners and we are better off under the government’s USO, CSG and price caps! Well, we saw today, yesterday and last week that Australia Post and Telstra are driving a truck through the regulations that this government touts as consumer protections. It is a farce that a minister in this chamber stands up and tries to tell people they are better off because they are paying more.

Australia Post is going to reap $5.7 million from pensioners and veterans. Australia Post is going to be better off by $5.7 million. Yet last year the reported profit of Australia Post was $374 million. And they need to rip out of the pockets of pensioners and veterans an extra $5.7 million! Yet again we saw the mock outrage; yet again we saw the minister crying crocodile tears. It is just like last week, when she stood up and said, ‘This is terrible; I haven’t been consulted’—about all these 5,000 payphones that are to be ripped out. We saw crocodile tears last week and crocodile tears this week.

This minister is continually rolled by Telstra. She called them in to give them a piece of her mind last week, and what happened? She came out and said, ‘Well, actually, they can if they want.’ It was pathetic to watch. But what was truly pathetic was watching the minister put on the mock indignation. She held a press conference before I did, to express her outrage. She had the first breath; she beat Barnaby out the door.