Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition have had some salacious accusations from Senator Sherry on this matter. What is outrageous is what the Labor Party is doing here. This $2 billion only exists because the federal coalition government proceeded with the sale of the remaining 50 per cent of the shares of Telstra, something that the Labor Party bitterly opposed and fought all the way. But we had a clear mandate to sell those remaining shares. The shares were sold, and our undertaking with the Australian people and with this parliament was that $2 billion from the proceeds would go into the Communications Fund. That was our act of faith with people in rural and regional Australia who we understand had concerns about the sale of Telstra. But we said, ‘We’re going to take part of the proceeds of that sale and preserve them in perpetuity for the purposes of providing rural and regional Australians with ongoing funding in perpetuity to support them in their rural and regional telecommunications needs.’

So here is Senator Sherry on behalf of the government saying, ‘Isn’t it dreadful that the coalition wants to preserve this $2 billion?’ The $2 billion would not be there if Labor had had their way. If they had succeeded in preventing us selling our remaining shares in Telstra then this $2 billion would not exist. So for them to accuse us of hypocrisy on this and to be outraged is ridiculous. The money is there for rural and regional Australians because of a policy we pursued that the Labor Party opposed at every step. Our act of faith with the people of rural and regional Australia was that that money would be preserved to support their communications needs. I urge the Senate to support us in this endeavour of preserving this funding.

Senator Ludlam, I think quite properly, raised the fact that Labor propose to grab this $2 billion and use it as part-payment towards Labor’s ill-fated and deeply-flawed national broadband network. This again shows the hypocrisy of the Labor Party. As I have said, the $2 billion comes from the proceeds of the sale. The other $2.7 billion also comes from the proceeds of the sale. What Labor have done is grabbed the second instalment of the payment for Telstra shares—and they have the capacity to do this. That was meant to go to the Future Fund in fact. So they have deprived the Future Fund of the $2.7 billion to go towards paying the superannuation for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and public servants, and whacked it into Senator Conroy’s national broadband network.

As Senator Ludlam has properly said, Telstra has made it abundantly clear that all the $4.7 billion is going to do is subsidise the provision of broadband in metropolitan Australia. Rural and regional Australians are not going to see the benefit of this $4.7 billion so they are double losers—they lose the $2 billion from the Communications Fund and then they see it go into metropolitan Australia to provide fibre in metropolitan areas. With the cancellation of the OPEL contract by this government, rural and regional Australians are going to be left hanging out to dry. This is a moment for the Senate to really stand up for rural and regional Australians. Do you care about them or don’t you? What are your priorities? If your priorities are to ensure that rural and regional Australians are protected from the ravages of this Labor government wanting to take away that $2 billion then you will support these amendments.