Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. As has been noted, I have answered the question, but I am also responding to some comments that were made by Senator Macdonald. I think it is fairly free-ranging if I am responding directly to comments that were made by Senator Macdonald. I think, to be fair to you, Senator Fisher, you were not here, and I do not think Senator Fifield was, but Senator Macdonald is a guilty party. He voted to privatise a vertically integrated monopoly and create the mess that we are cleaning up; this is the final part of the legislation to clean it up. The government, for the first time, are making a contribution towards the costs of the universal service obligation for those in our community that have the worst access to telecommunications services. We are not the party that voted for privatisation that meant that Telstra's mobile phone network did not reach all the places it should. We are not the party—