Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know you are not interested. Absolutely you are not interested in this subject, because you are a privatiser yourself. We have you on record for that—as you scuttle out of the chamber. He was relying solely on Terry McCrann as his source of advice—the great grasshopper, Terry McCrann. I think the Labor Party will find that Terry McCrann bites back at them more than they will ever have the opportunity to quote him.

But I will go to the substance of this debate. Probably no issue has dominated this parliament and certainly the minds of the opposition in the past 10 years more than the privatisation of Telstra. This is the essence of the debate today. They are clinging on to some failed policy of objecting to the government’s mandate. When I say mandate, I mean not just from the two houses of parliament, which on three occasions now have mandated the government to sell Telstra—T1, T2 and now T3—but from four occasions at elections.

It is quite obvious the Labor Party are now heading into their fifth election with the same failed policy. You have to wonder: have they learnt anything from the last election at all? There were so many lessons to learn, let alone the failed leader you decided to put up, your economic credentials and four failed Telstra policies. Have you learnt anything? Are you going to get about with new, refreshed policies or are you going to go to the fifth election with the same policy? We enter an election year very soon—it will be this time or late next year. Have you learnt anything about refreshing your policies? Are you so contemptuous of the electorate after four occasions with a policy of having no privatisation of Telstra that you are going to front up to the electorate one more time with those sorts of failed policies? You have learnt nothing. You are across there in opposition and the whole perception you are giving to the electorate is of opposition for opposition’s sake, that you have really learnt nothing at all.

Your questioning all this week has been devoted to the sale of Telstra. I dare say that, with a couple more days to go, it will continue to be so. Your whole week has been based on the fact that the government are engaging in a fire sale.