Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the government’s nomination of Geoff Cousins to the Telstra board outside of the usual independence and propriety tests. Doesn’t the Telstra prospectus include a damning indictment of the suitability of Mr Cousins as a Telstra board member? Can the Prime Minister inform the House how it is in the interests of Telstra’s 1.6 million shareholders for the government to appoint a mate as a government stooge to the Telstra board?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government’s approach in relation to the selection of Mr Cousins and his nomination to the board was no different from the approach that has been taken by the government in relation to a number of people—including a number of people who currently sit on the board of Telstra. So in that sense there is absolutely nothing unusual. It is true that the prospectus contains the view of the board, not a damning indictment.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Melbourne is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have read very carefully what the board has said about Mr Cousins. I would not regard what it said as a damning indictment, but the board has expressed a different view about Mr Cousins. Let me make it very plain: the government will be voting for Mr Cousins at the annual meeting and I feel reasonably confident that he will be elected at the annual general meeting. I think he will make an outstanding director, he will be utterly independent and he is not a stooge of the government, and the idea that because at some stage somebody has provided a consultancy to the government—or, indeed, any other government—that person is disqualified from future service on the board of a large corporation is absolutely ludicrous. Mr Cousins has an outstanding commercial record—he understands communications far better than many other people who talk about communications in this country—and I think he will bring status and quality to the board when, as I confidently predict, he is elected with a comfortable majority on 14 November.