Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

The issue before the Senate is not whether Telstra ought to be sold or not. The government made the decision to privatise; it has passed legislation. The issue before the Senate is the government’s massive incompetence in mishandling the regulatory regime around Telstra, which has been led—although I should not use that word—by Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and in the mishandling of the privatisation process by the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Minchin. That is the central issue.

That is the issue that people are worried about in this country today, and I will tell you why they are worried about it: it is because, under the direction and oversight of Senator Coonan, the minister for communications, we have seen an absolute shambles and mess of regulatory mismanagement, which has largely resulted in the share price diving from $7.40 at the release of T2 shares to the low of $3.60 today. That is the reason the share price has been going south—the incompetence of Senator Coonan in her approach to the regulatory issues and regulatory parameters. She introduced legislation into this parliament that is set around Telstra, and that is the basic dilemma that the government have.

The government have set in place a regulatory framework in which Telstra is, frankly, struggling to survive at the present time. As a consequence, we have seen the share price of T2—which was $7.40 if you are one of the just over 1½ million individuals to buy into T2—almost halved to the low of $3.60. The over 1½ million Australians who, on the urging of this government, participated in T2 have taken an absolute bath when it comes to the capital purchase price of the shares they bought. The government are primarily responsible for that situation. Here they are, 11 years in government, and they blame us! We did not vote to privatise Telstra. It was the government that voted to privatise it. It was the government that set up the regulatory regime. Largely driven by those bananas and drongos in the National Party, they have tried to impose some sort of Stalinist centralist regulatory shackle on the telecommunications system. Today, we are in an unholy mess as a consequence of what Telstra has got to struggle with.

It is not just the shareholders who have taken a bath; it is the Australian taxpayers who are taking a bath. In the budget last year T3 shares were valued at $5.25, and the tranche was worth about $31 billion if it was sold. In the mid-year financial review its value dropped to $4 a share or $26 billion, and now on the current approach the value has dropped to below $3.60 and it is now worth $24 billion. So on this government’s watch, because of their incompetence in terms of the regulatory framework around Telstra, the taxpayer has lost some $7 billion in Telstra’s value because of Senator Coonan’s incompetence.

I feel a little sorry for Senator Minchin. Senator Minchin is one of the smarter operators on the government side and he must be tearing his hair out at Senator Coonan’s approach to the regulatory parameters and her performance and comments about Telstra. Everything Senator Coonan touches and everything she says about Telstra has the share price dropping. So we are faced with the worst of all worlds: inappropriate regulation and a diving share price.

And all of this mess is going to end up in the Future Fund. Can you find anyone in the market who believes that it is a good idea to dump 30 or 40 per cent of Telstra into the Future Fund? It creates an overhang on price for the next three to four years. That is the mess. We have got the worst combination of outcomes here. Senator Minchin blames the Labor Party for the mess, but in recent days we have seen an outbreak of virulent anti-Americanism from the government ranks. They do not blame Senator Coonan or Senator Minchin or have a hard look at what they have done. They blame the American imports, the executives. (Time expired)