Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The big problem here tonight is that Telstra was sold. It should never have been sold—at the top of the market or the bottom of the market. It was a magnificent and important national asset which was under the direction and control of this parliament, and when the coalition sold it we lost that direction, that control and that opportunity, and we will not get it back.

The problem here tonight is not with the National Party; it is with the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party has decided to concede to the government for the third time this week. It did so on the water bill and the north-south pipeline. It did so on the education bill. And it is doing so tonight on this piece of legislation. There is a consistency to this, which is that, for some reason that is not quite spoken, the leaders in the Turnbull Liberal Party have decided not to create a difficulty in the run to the period between now and when we resume parliament next year. There is great aggression and aggrievement between the coalition partners here tonight, and that is something for the National Party and the Liberal Party to sort out, but the difficulty here tonight, if you want to pin it, is very much with the Liberal Party itself. It led the sale of Telstra and tonight it is leading the backdown on this defence of the Communications Fund, which the National Party wanted to protect so stoically but cannot do anything about. That is something that the National Party is going to have to think about.

The harm was done here when the Liberal Party and the National Party got the numbers to control the Senate. If that had not happened, we would not be in this position tonight. Whatever is going on in the Liberal Party, it has backed off to the Rudd government tonight. It has not stood its ground. That is the third time this week, and it is not a good look for an opposition. I have to feel sorry for the National Party, which finds itself left like a shag on a rock by its Liberal Party partners. If that is a coalition, the dictionary has a new definition. It is a tragedy that we are in this position, late at night, because the Howard government sold Telstra. It should never have done it. When it did so, it did great damage to Australia. We have to find real ways of ensuring that the bush gets a much better deal on telecommunications in the coming years.