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

I take this opportunity to commend Senator Coonan on the outstanding job she is doing in regulating telecommunications in this country and ensuring that Australians have world-class standards of telecommunications, which the Labor Party never delivered to Australians. The standard of telecommunications in this country is so far superior now to that which prevailed under the Labor Party that it is not funny. Senator Coonan can take much of the credit.

As to shareholders, all government ministers would say that, while we want this to be the greatest share-owning democracy in the world and we are doing a lot to bring that about, all those investors who wish to invest in the share market in any kind of stock must operate on a caveat emptor basis—buyer beware. The share market has risks and shareholders should be conscious of those risks when they invest in the share market.