Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say that I am surprised at one of the comments that Senator Troeth just made. I have a great deal of respect for Senator Troeth; I have worked with her on committees over many years. I regard her as one of the more sensible, rational and reasonable people in the opposition. But Senator Troeth said that the Senate will be asked to vote on the NBN without any information. That is not true. That is an absolutely outrageous distortion. I could use an unparliamentary word but I would be called to order. That is absolutely incorrect, and you know it is incorrect.

Let me very briefly touch upon some of the things I can recall from the previous government, which suggest that you are speaking with forked tongues when you mount those arguments on the NBN. I was around when proposals were put up by the then Howard government to sell Telstra and I can remember the refusal of the Howard government to release information about their proposals to privatise an existing government enterprise. The initial position of the Howard government was to seek approval to sell 100 per cent of Telstra. They said, ‘We’re not actually going to sell 100 per cent; we are actually going to sell maybe 33 or 49 per cent, but give us the power to sell the lot’—in other words, they wanted to bypass proper parliamentary scrutiny by getting approval in advance to sell down Telstra at whatever percentage the government decided. Fortunately the Senate on that occasion took steps to frustrate and stop that process.