Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, Minister for Finance and Administration. As the minister responsible for signing off on the T3 prospectus, can the minister indicate when he first saw a draft of the prospectus document? Who else in government was given access to the draft prospectus? Is it true that on Saturday the Prime Minister insisted on inserting additional information, putting the government’s case for the appointment of Mr Cousins? Was the minister personally involved in the negotiations through Sunday and into Monday to have the changes demanded by the Prime Minister included in the document? At what time on Monday morning did the minister finally give his consent to the prospectus?

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

I think there are about 10 questions there! How long do I get, Mr President? Can I begin my answer by apologising to the Senate for not being here yesterday but thanking my colleague Senator Coonan for so ably filling in for me and answering questions extremely well—and indeed creating history by her presence at the desk yesterday. Can I also take this opportunity to thank the government’s many advisers, the people in my department, Telstra and all our bankers and lawyers for their cooperation in making sure that we were able to issue the prospectus yesterday for the T3 offer. I look forward to some three million copies of that prospectus being made available to Australians so that they can consider an investment in this share offer.

I have been asked a significant number of questions with respect to the prospectus, and I am happy to deal with those questions, but it needs to be understood that a prospectus is a complex legal document. It is required to be issued by the law. It is required to have within it a significant statement of the risks associated with the investment. That is a part of any prospectus and, indeed, prospectuses issued internationally for telecommunications companies are much more complex, with many more risk pages in them than ours. So obviously there was considerable negotiation between the government, on one hand, as the seller of the shares and Telstra, as the holder of the company in which the shares are held, to reach a satisfactory conclusion. We had some 10 different teams of lawyers involved, representing all the variety of interests that there are, in putting together a prospectus for what will be the biggest share offering in this country since, in fact, T2 some seven years ago. So yes, of course, there was considerable negotiation as to the state of the words.

Because this is a global offering, we had to comply with the corporate rules around the world. The company’s US lawyers were keen to ensure that the risks statement complied with the legislation in that country, and obviously they were very keen as directors to ensure that they complied fully, as public company directors, with their risk disclosure obligations. We, as the government selling these shares on behalf of taxpayers, had a slightly different perspective that we wanted to bring to this issue. We are obviously keen to ensure that investors are properly, fully informed but at the same time do consider the attractiveness of this offer. So, naturally, a lot of work went on, as you would expect in negotiating agreement on the form of words on which both the board and the government had to sign off.

The deadline for the launch of the offer had been set at 9 October for some time. The board knew that. The board scheduled a specific meeting at 7.30 yesterday morning to enable it to formally sign off. I was not in a position to formally sign off on behalf of the government on the prospectus, of course, until the company had signed off. Once that occurred, we received confirmation from the board that they were happy. Then we signed off. I signed off on behalf of the government, obviously in consultation with my Prime Minister, yesterday morning. That enabled us to go to the launch at midday—and a very successful launch it was—and I would encourage all Australians to take very keen interest in what is an outstanding offer.

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Did the minister convey the threat by the government to vote against two existing board members if Telstra continued its campaign against the appointment of Mr Cousins? If it was not the minister, who in the government was responsible for conveying this threat? Does the minister have full confidence in the two directors the government threatened to vote off the board?

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

As Senator McEwen obviously realises, at the time of the AGM the government will still be the 51.8 per cent shareholder in this company. As it always has, it will responsibly and sensibly exercise its responsibilities as the majority shareholder at the AGM. We have indicated in the prospectus that we will be supporting and voting for all four directors who are up for re-election at the AGM, and we will also be exercising our votes in favour of the nomination of Mr Cousins.