Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note of answers by Senator Minchin today to questions on Telstra. First of all, I have to admire Senator Humphries for coming in here and trying to defend the indefensible. I noticed that neither the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Minchin, nor the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan, is prepared to come in here and defend this government’s mismanagement and its irresponsibility when it comes to Telstra, particularly the proposed T3 share float. Senator Humphries tried to dredge up the past to develop some sort of a defence for what has become a scandal.

I never thought I would see the day when we had the conservative party in this country using the communist regimes in Cuba and China to defend its position. As for arguing about what the Labor Party did when we were in government—we sold Qantas because, whilst it was a publicly owned asset, it was used by about five per cent of the Australian population; and we sold the Commonwealth Bank because it was just like any other bank. But we never sold Telstra, and we said we never would, because Telstra is different. At the end of the day, Telstra is the network in this country that every single Australian depends on and is a part of. What this government has done since its initial decision to privatise Telstra is fundamentally undermine the basis upon which Telstra has operated in this country since it was Telecom—and even before that. Shareholders, who are themselves getting screwed, have apparently been deemed by this government to be the desired beneficiaries; but, if you live in the country and you depend on getting services, you are not going to get them.

What is this government’s record? What they did was talk up the sale of T2. They put the shares on the market at $7.40. Those shares are now worth $3.50. We said at the time that this would happen. We predicted that this would happen. But, of course, we had the Prime Minister out there saying this was an extremely good deal—Australians should queue up and buy shares at $7.40 in a company that effectively they were already part-owners of because they were members of the Australian community and Australian taxpayers. And what is a share now worth? Three dollars fifty. The government are now trying to say it is still a good deal because shareholders just received a 14c dividend. But, as Senator Conroy pointed out, there is no guarantee that that level of dividend, if there is any dividend at all, will continue beyond next year. The major financial institutions that have been mentioned, those that track these things—Standard and Poor’s, Citibank and so on—have raised serious doubts about that future dividend stream.

Senator Minchin says those who bought into T2 have done very well. He described it as a good deal. Only a person who reads those emails about Nigerian lottery scams and thinks they are a good deal would parrot that sort of nonsense. This has never been a good deal. It is rubbish. But, in their haste and urgency to get the sale of T3 through and get rid of the rest of Telstra, they are trying to talk that sale up. They are circulating, as the minister acknowledged here today, a brief to their backbench to go out and say that this is an attractive deal. Whilst the minister says he is not in the financial investment advice business and is not entitled under the law—quite correctly—to proffer financial advice, that is effectively what they are doing. Isn’t it ironic that Senator Minchin the other day on TV said that he hoped his mum would buy shares in T3? He is encouraging his mum to buy shares in T3 but at the same time Phil Burgess, the senior executive of Telstra, is telling his mum not to buy shares in T3. Who are the mums of this country supposed to believe? On this score they probably would believe Mr Burgess—admittedly, one of the three amigos—who is making the situation with Telstra even worse. This is an absolute scandal. It is a scandal that this government should come in here and try to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear! (Time expired)