Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Sherry for the question. I am certain that I heard Senator Conroy ask pretty much the same question but, in any event, it is an important question and it is important that the Senate is informed that the Australian government has nominated Mr Geoff Cousins to be a director of the Telstra board. This has been the subject of some media comment over the past couple of weeks, and it has been the subject of some discussion between the government and the board of Telstra. But, as I said in answer to Senator Conroy, the government has a perfect right to nominate somebody to the board, to nominate a board director and to nominate somebody for appointment to the board, because it happens to be the majority shareholder. This might come as a great shock to the Labor Party, who I would have thought pride themselves on knowing something about government—