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

Senator Ferguson has got a copy and Senator Humphries has got a copy. They have all got a copy of the document circulating from Senator Minchin’s office, and will one of them table it? Senator Minchin would not table it. Would one of them table it? No, they would not. What did it tell them to do? It told them to talk up and spruik a particularly attractive dividend stream from T3. Come on down, Senator Ferguson—show us that document. You could table it. You have got a copy. Senator Minchin does not want to table it because the coalition MPs have been instructed to talk up T3 by spruiking a particularly attractive dividend stream despite the fact that Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Citibank have all said the same thing about the yield and the dividend stream: that it is unsustainable.

This is a smash-and-grab. You are going to mug T3 shareholders just like you mugged T2 shareholders, and every single one of them is going to have the same names tattooed on their foreheads: Minchin and Howard. Senator Minchin and Prime Minister Howard are the ones flogging it off to us. They are the ones who set up the smash-and-grab. The institutions have said: ‘We are going to buy this. We know a good smash-and-grab when we see it.’ But will they be holding it in two years time when it goes ex-dividend? Oh no, they will not. They know what is going on. They recognise the scam.

Even Paul Neville, the chairman of your own backbench committee, has worked it out. He has said that they do not want to see the small shareholders being sucked in by the T3 offer and the special inducements that Senator Minchin and all the merchant banks have got away with. John Howard, the Prime Minister, knows this. Senator Minchin knows this. Once the dividend drops, so will the Telstra share price. This is a smash-and-grab being set up by the government to mug and suck in T3 investors. This is the worst possible time to sell Telstra. We have a smoke-and-mirrors trick. Just talk about the yield. Just talk about the dividends. Don’t mention the long-term value. Poor Senator Joyce’s mum and dad. He has given them advice—heaven forbid—to hold onto it for the long term. There isn’t an institutional investor in this country that would give them that advice. They know the smash-and-grab. They are going to be sucked in and mugged just like Senator Minchin’s mum and just like Senator Barnaby Joyce’s parents. (Time expired)