Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps the truest words in this debate were spoken by the member for Gippsland when he said that Labor lacks conviction and credibility. If there is one key message that we hear from Australians about the high level of cynicism that they have towards the political process, it is the fact that so often the rhetoric does not match the action. What do we see from the member for Bendigo and the member for Melbourne? They like to make the talk. The Australian Labor Party will say how committed it is. Just a moment ago we heard from the member for Bendigo that the Australian Labor Party is apparently committed to Telstra remaining in public ownership.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you will note that the member for Melbourne was remarkably silent about the ALP’s proposal with respect to the future ownership structure of Telstra. The member for Melbourne, the shadow finance minister, made no comment about what the Australian Labor Party would be doing with the balance of Telstra. We know from the shadow communications minister, Senator Conroy, that the Australian Labor Party would be looking at retaining the 30 per cent or so of equities that would be going into the Future Fund. Is that going to be the benchmark level of future ownership that the Australian Labor Party has?

Or perhaps we can go to what the member for Bendigo said. The member for Bendigo basically said that the Australian Labor Party’s view is that Telstra should have either majority public ownership of some 50 per cent and over or ownership in the vicinity of 100 per cent. That is what the member for Bendigo was saying about Telstra ownership, with his traditional Labor Left approach and ideology.

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