Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to listen to Senator Forshaw talking about irony. I have to say it is particularly delicious irony to listen to some of the arguments that have been made. Senator Forshaw touched upon the role of financial advice, and Senator Minchin has quite rightly said that he should not be providing financial advice to people to make an investment decision. The Labor Party spokesman on this issue also agrees with that. However, we have a very intriguing approach by Mr Swan. He does not feel constrained by the responsibilities of the Corporations Law or the financial advice law; he simply comes out and says he would not recommend that anyone invest in Telstra and he would not recommend it to the people of Australia. Such an undisciplined and ironic contradiction to what Mr Tanner has said—and, of course, Senator Minchin—says to me that the Labor Party are a bit bereft of ideas about a consistent and coherent policy initiative.

The simple fact is that the Labor Party is absolutely controlled by the union movement, and there are a number of industry super funds that are equally controlled by their union movement. I would bet London to a brick that most of these industry super funds have shares in Telstra. When you talk about who is going to be buying shares in Telstra as your industry super funds are dumping them, it says to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the market. You cannot sell shares unless someone is prepared to buy them. So for all your posturing and indignation about no-one being prepared to buy the shares, in that case no-one will be able to sell them either.

The real scandal about the sale of Telstra—and I have to say there is a scandal attached to it—is the cost of the Labor Party’s inconsistent and incoherent policy that has flip-flopped and backflipped, however you want to describe it, over the past decade; it started back then. Their decision to oppose the sale of Telstra, upon which we have been elected four successive times, has cost the Australian taxpayers somewhere around $50 billion. Telstra would be a far better company and would be better at rewarding its shareholders and providing better services if it had been completely privatised earlier with the support of the Labor Party.

We have to go back. I do not know why they have changed their policy on these privatisations. I do not know why we have to change our policy, because it was Mr Beazley, I understand, who condemned the Fraser government for only selling the Belconnen Mall, if I am correct. Mr Beazley even boasted to the House of Representatives that they were selling two airlines and the Commonwealth Bank. Hang on! Is that an institution that nearly every Australian had some involvement with? Gee, it is.