Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The mining tax—that was a lovely disaster, wasn’t it? Nobody consulted; it just comes out there, all worked out. The Treasurer, Mr Swan, has done a wonderful job on that—not! Then, of course, there was the pre-election fix that is now not a pre-election fix. Again, the pre-election fix is another case of exclusion. The three big mining companies come in; they get a chance to talk to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, and of course all the smaller operators are left out in the cold, left out in the dark, and have to try to find some other way to get their issues sorted out. So there is plenty of reason for us to say that we do not trust you when you say, ‘Trust us.’

The Labor members talk about this magnificent take-up rate. Senator Carol Brown talked about the take-up rate. But the take-up rate, I think, needs to be clarified. What Senator Carol Brown is talking about is the number of people who said, ‘Yes, run the cable to my house’—not the people who have bought a service; just the people who have said, ‘Yes, I’ll have a cable in. It’s being done free; it’s not costing me anything.’ I think it is a reasonable thing to do.