Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I should state for the record that we do bear very much in mind the issues facing the 1.6 million shareholders, many of whom happen to be Labor Party members, ironically. The hypocrisy knows no bounds: they oppose the sale but then they buy the shares. They are important to us, and that is why, in the interest of their part-ownership of this company, we want to get the government out of the ownership of this company. It is a ridiculous situation to have half of this company owned by the government. Those shareholders will be much better off when all those shares are floated. We hope to be in a position to make a full retail offer, but we have not yet made a decision. So the question is entirely hypothetical.