Senator O'CHEE —Mr President, my question is directed to the Minister for Communications and the Arts. I refer the minister to the statements made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition on the Meet the Press program on 12 May. Mr Evans said in that interview that he was prepared to debate the Telstra legislation in the normal way when it came up.

Senator Sherry —What did you say in your interview this morning?

Senator O'CHEE —For Senator Sherry's benefit, Mr Evans said—and I quote—

Opposition senators interjecting—

The PRESIDENT —Order! There are too many interjections on my left. Senator O'Chee has the call.

Senator O'CHEE —Thank you, Mr President. For the benefit of the rabble on the other side, I should say that Mr Evans said:

We are not going to hang in imposing ridiculous constraints on that—

the Telstra legislation—

and we will just respond to the issues in a measured way as they come forward.

Does the minister support Mr Evans's approach?

Senator ALSTON —Thank you, Mr President.

Senator Robert Ray —Read out the question he was actually asked.

Senator ALSTON —How is your six-week taxpayer funded holiday coming along? It's about time your got on the front bench and did a bit of work. I will read to you what he said. He said this:

We frankly are prepared to debate the Telstra legislation in the normal way when it comes up.

In other words, he said he had an open mind on the subject. That, of course, is in absolute contradistinction with what Senator Faulkner had to say when he let the cat out of the bag on 1 May. In moving an amendment to the Address-in-Reply, he said:

The Senate is of the opinion that no part of Telstra should be sold. I believe that selling part or all of our communications carrier would be an act of gross irresponsibility in itself.

In other words, he had absolutely made up his mind. There was no basis upon which he was prepared to do anything other than vote against this legislation. This was perfectly consistent with Senator Evans' point of view—which, perhaps, was what they both had in mind at that time. Lest there be any doubt about it, let's look at what Senator Bourne had to say on the World Today today at 12 o'clock. She was asked:

Will you vote for the privatisation of Telstra under some circumstances?

Her answer:

No, absolutely not.

There you have it. The two biggest opposition parties in this place have absolutely made up their minds that they do not support the privatisation of Telstra under any circumstances. Yet what are we facing now? We are facing at least a three-month adjournment.

I will tell you something very interesting that I discovered only late last night. I thought there might have been some powerful reason why this legislation needed to be referred to a committee. But do you know why it is being referred? You have only to listen to what Senator Schacht had to say. He said:

You have not exempted this new organisation from the Corporations Law which provides that minority shareholders have to be equally represented by all directors.

He is absolutely wrong because there are shareholder oversight provisions in the bill. When I pointed this out to him, he said:

I may not have the details perfectly correct but I bet a lot of other people do not either. These are the sorts of issues that have to be debated in the community. . .

In other words, the reason this bill is going off to a committee is that Senator Schacht wants to take a refresher course. He was not prepared to read the bill to find out what it was about. If he had, he would understand that it has all the necessary consumer protections.

You do not understand the first thing about this. You have this quaint notion that somehow, when you remove the right to direction, Telstra will have to act in a commercial way. Let me explain to you that five years ago you corporatised Telstra; in other words, ever since that day it has been required to act commercially. It has done that perfectly consistently with its community service obligation to ensure that services are reasonably available on an equitable basis. It will continue to do that. No-one has ever suggested that it should not.

It is an absolute tragedy and a monumental hypocrisy for both of the two major opposition parties to have made up their minds. I note that they are quite comfortable in being called the `opposition parties' these days; it is no longer `the other mob and the Democrats'. There is Senator Bourne revelling in it. The opposition parties are lying in the same dishonest bed together. They have made up their minds. They are not interested in debate. Nonetheless, they are prepared to deliberately flout the will of the people.

You know that this was a very controversial and, I think, brave and commendable initiative that we took to the last election. No-one laid a glove on us during that campaign. There has been no significant community concern expressed. Now you have the hide to deliberately frustrate the program. You will get your just desserts. (Time expired)

Senator O'CHEE —As a supplementary question, I ask the minister: what are the consequences for the Australian community if this legislation is blocked in the fashion that the two opposition parties would like?

Senator ALSTON —I am not prepared to assume that they will ultimately block it. I think that sanity and reason will prevail. You only have to read Glenn Milne's article last Monday to see that the Democrats—

Senator Carr —Oh, you have read it, have you?

Senator ALSTON —You obviously did not get past the first part of it. You obviously did not read the part where he gave the Democrats a very big serve for once again being fundamentally factually inaccurate.

That is the great problem that you have on your side of this chamber. You both have the fundamental problem that you do not have any decent reasons or arguments that will stack up in the light of day. That is why Senator Kernot was struggling very badly with the housing industry yesterday.

Senator Kernot —Oh, ha, ha!

Senator ALSTON —Just you talk to the people who were there. They were appalled that there was no coherent justification. You have only to look at the sorts of things that Senator Faulkner has had to say:

For the government to claim that it will be a more competitive company after privatisation is just arrant nonsense.

There is no justification—no facts, no figures—you are just ignoring the rest of the world. You know, because you had to study the issue, that all around the world privatisation has led to greater efficiency. But you are not interested, are you.