Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was the then Minister for Finance and now Leader of the Opposition, on 24 August 1994, in a speech entitled ‘Paying for our future: the changing role of public investment’. What honourable senators will no doubt find fascinating about the Labor Party’s present policy in relation to 30 per cent of Telstra going into the Future Fund and remaining there is that that happens to be the exact figure that the Australian Labor Party had put on their sell-down of the Commonwealth Bank. That 30 per cent rings some quite remarkable bells.

On this debate on a matter of public importance that was lodged with the Senate, I think it is a pity that Senator Conroy has not fully detailed what has been provided to T2 shareholders. I think, in the interests of completeness, he should also have inserted that there had been franking credits of some 78c, which he neglected to mention.

This motion is formulated under the guise of accountability and general business accountability, and I find it quite extraordinary that a party with its track record of public accountability and business accountability is lecturing this government in relation to the Telstra share sale. This was the government who delivered us Ros Kelly and the sports rorts affair—a classic example of public accountability. This was the government who allowed one of its own members to claim a compensation payment for a motorcycle accident that occurred out the front of this place. That government allowed him to sue himself. This is the same opposition—and they will not be in government for a long, long time—whose member was found by a royal commission to have falsely denied to the public her knowledge ‘of the affair that she was involved with’—a business affair, I hasten to add. This is the same opposition which has a building called Centenary House, about two kilometres away from this place as the crow flies, and which has allowed the Labor Party to receive some $36 million-plus extra into its own pockets. This is accountability Labor Party style, and we will not be lectured by them in relation to this matter.