Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a challenge in this place for the Labor side to decide whether to read the scripted speeches, as Senator Wortley did, or to fly by the seat of their pants, as Senator Marshall did. The problem with flying by the seat of your pants, as Senator Marshall has just done, is that, when you do not know what your own policies are, you make a mess of it. In opposition the Labor Party did oppose the sale of Telstra and cost the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars because they delayed and would not allow the government to get on with the policy. As soon as it was sold and transferred into the Future Fund, they changed their policy and said, ‘We now support the sale of Telstra and the privatisation of Telstra,’ and they said they would not try to get it back from the Future Fund. That is the truth, and Senator Marshall is clearly unaware of that.

Senator Marshall did not address the issues that Senator Conroy failed to address. Senator Conroy has claimed the prize that is fiercely contested on that side of the chamber—as the most hapless and hopeless minister in a sneaky and underhanded government. Why do I say that they are sneaky and underhanded? Why is Senator Conroy hapless? Let us have a look. He had his failed broadband tender, which was the policy they took to the last election. It failed because they would not allow Telstra to participate in it. Then he came up with his back-of-the-envelope broadband plan in which $43 billion of taxpayers’ money was scheduled with Kevin Rudd in the VIP jet—