Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

It is going very well thank you, Senator Evans. I said in April that we had not decided on the method or timing of this sale because we had to see what final decision was made in relation to T3. I very explicitly said back then, and in subsequent interviews, that the timing of the Medibank Private sale would be very much influenced by what we decided to do with our remaining shares in Telstra. There is no deception there; we were quite clear in our position.

The history of the Snowy is well known. We only had 13 per cent of the shares. The New South Wales government initiated this sale with their majority stake of 57 per cent. We decided, after they had initiated the sale, to tip in our 13 per cent. But as the Prime Minister clearly announced, given the public reaction to that, we decided to withdraw our 13 per cent. Victoria and New South Wales could have gone ahead and sold their 87 per cent if they so chose. (Time expired)