Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I will respond through the chair. There are three broad criticisms that have been put forward by a range of senators. The first set of criticisms is in respect of the transfer of the $2 billion from the Communications Fund, and the allegations about breach of trust, breach of promise et cetera are discussed. As I have pointed out, this Labor government is determined to deliver on this election promise. We gave that commitment to the Australian people, and they trust us to deliver on it. That is our perspective. You are entitled to your perspective. I think the National Party is entitled to feel a little bit miffed about what happened with the privatisation of Telstra those years ago. They cannot say they were not warned at the time. I can remember the debates about the difficulties the National Party would confront down the track by agreeing to the privatisation of Telstra and about minimising the difficulties and the outcomes that we are debating tonight. Senator Fielding is spot-on in his critique of the National Party in this regard, but the National Party made a decision at the time to go along with it. That was the National Party’s call. We are going to deliver on our election promise.

In terms of the NBN, it is too early to be condemning the outcome of a process that has only just begun. You can make your judgements and critiques about success or otherwise, but I believe it will be successful.