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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

Once again we have seen today the government’s off-handed, arrogant treatment not only of question time and the questions that have been put to it but of Australian shareholders. Senator Nick Minchin has been pinged, well and truly, today. Terry McCrann, no fan of the Labor Party, has published an article today, with the title ‘Nick Minchin’s idiotic grasp of finance’. Mr McCrann writes:

In his own words yesterday, Minchin effectively “announced” he was not competent to be finance minister.

“And of course, if they haven’t sold, they haven’t lost their money,” were his words of astonishing stupidity.

This is Mr Terry McCrann:

In very simple terms, if Minchin does not understand that you have lost real money even if—especially if—you haven’t sold, the nation’s finances should not be entrusted to his care. He should be liberated to take his idiosyncratic views to the investment, corporate, accounting and banking worlds: that they’ve all been “doing it” exactly wrong.

He goes on to say:

Did I describe his “analysis” as idiosyncratic? I used far too many letters. Idiotic would be crisper.

Not simply for the asinine financial interpretation, but the raw politics.

That is what has been written today. That is what we are seeing from this government. We are seeing a government that is out of touch. It is arrogant and it is desperate to avoid facing the music when the T3 share price goes exdividend. That is why we have an instalment process: for those senators and people like Senator Barnaby Joyce’s mum and dad—and for Senator Minchin’s own mum, whom he cut off yesterday. He cut off his mum yesterday. He put the phone down. He hung up on his own mum yesterday. How disgraceful!

Senator Minchin stands condemned for deceiving and misleading this chamber about what has been going on in the financial markets in this country for the last week. What we have seen is article after article talking about a discount being available to existing Telstra shareholders, and I am going to quote from them. Where did all of these journalists get this idea from? We have Jesse Hogan from the Age saying:

Options for the Government include a combination of a price discount, bonus shares or a guaranteed share allotment.

David Humphries, from the Sydney Morning Herald, in the article ‘Minchin plans sweeteners in Telstra sale’ says:

Lobbied by his back bench to give a discount on new stock sold to existing shareholders …

                 …         …         …

Possible sweeteners include a discounted share price …

Where did this come from? Jane Schulze and Michael Sainsbury, in ‘Bonus to stop T3 free-fall’, say:

It is not known when details of the entitlement offer will be announced, but market rumours suggested it could be a one-for-five offer, with existing Telstra shareholders gaining one discounted share for every five Telstra shares they now own.

But the general retail offer is also likely to include a discount of up to 5 per cent to Telstra’s market price at the time of the offer launch.

Michelle Grattan is a journalist famous in this building for her attention to detail. She will phone you at 12 o’clock at night to make sure she has the story right. Michelle says the government:

… is not revealing how they will benefit but options include the right to subscribe for additional shares, a discount on the share price …

Where did Michelle Grattan get that idea from? Where did David Crowe and Tony Boyd from the Australian Financial Review get the idea that there would be ‘generous discounts to existing shareholders to encourage them to take part in the sale’? In fact, they go on to say:

Existing Telstra shareholders will be offered a guaranteed allocation of shares at a discount price in order to shore up demand for Telstra shares.

What is going on in this country at the moment is a scandal. This government is rigging the market in Telstra shares. It is deliberately allowing the opportunity for trading while the market is uninformed in Telstra shares, and two people stand condemned for this: Senator Nick Minchin and Senator Helen Coonan. They should put to bed this rumour that they and their staff have circulated, that their market gurus have circulated, that, as the Financial Review article says:

One executive involved in the sale said the discount was “in the mix” …

That is what is going on. We have a rigged share offer and ASIC is missing in action again. (Time expired)