Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One can only wonder where Senator Conroy is coming from in making the criticisms he does of the government’s actions in seeking the appointment of Mr Cousins. The government, Senator Conroy, as I might remind you, is the majority shareholder and has the interests of the people of Australia to care for. And that is why the government has every right to want to see the best possible people on the board of this corporation. Telstra is, after all, one of this country’s very biggest businesses. It has a turnover running into billions of dollars, it has literally thousands and thousands of employees and its services reach out across this country to every citizen of Australia.

So, surely, as a majority shareholder, with those sorts of issues around this company, the government should insist that the directors be the very best people available. In fact, they should be people with an understanding of the telecommunications industry, a broad interest in and experience of business in general, and also a great understanding of the public interest. The government has a responsibility, as I said, to ensure that the best qualified directors are appointed to this company because it has such an important role to play in our society.

So let us have a look at Mr Cousins. Mr Cousins has exemplary qualifications to be a director of Telstra. He not only has a very strong business background, with considerable experience in marketing, advertising and telecommunications, he is also a person who has a great sense of responsibility to the Australian community. For 20 years Mr Cousins was a senior executive with what was Australia’s most powerful advertising agency, George Patterson Pty Ltd.

He also has a great deal of experience in the communications field. He has been a director of PBL, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, one of Australia’s greatest communications companies and media networks; and he has also been a director of the Seven Network, one of our three great free-to-air television services. In addition, Mr Cousins is currently a director of the Insurance Australia Group and the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation. So he is a man with broad general experience in business, broad experience in telecommunications and broad experience in areas of community need such as dealing with cancer.

Like all other directors, Mr Cousins will have fiduciary duties to act in the interests of all shareholders. And that is what he will do, because he has plenty of experience of the legal requirements of directors of public companies. Mr Cousins will, I am sure, make a valuable, independent contribution to the board and add to its depth through his extensive experience of Australian telecommunications and corporate affairs.

Surely to goodness there is no argument that shareholders appoint board members or that the Australian government is the major shareholder in Telstra. There is nothing wrong with a majority shareholder nominating a director and, in fact, it is an accepted corporate governance practice in Australia and overseas. Indeed, Telstra has itself appointed various people to the board.

The claim by the ALP that this is an attempt by the government to stack the board is absolute nonsense. What would the ALP do, I wonder; appoint some union hack, just as they appointed people to run Centenary House? What we need is people of good calibre and broad experience, and that is what the government will be giving to Telstra with the appointment of Mr Cousins to the board.