Mr McDOUGALL —My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister outline to the House the wide ranging safeguards for all Australians in the area of telecommunications, which are locked in irrespective of who owns Telstra? Is it the case that opponents of the full sale of Telstra not only oppose relieving future generations of Beazley's Labor debt, but also stand in the way of massive communications infrastructure improvements—

Mr Beazley —I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. There is a correct form in the House for addressing members of this House, Mr Speaker, and it ought be dealt with here.

Mr SPEAKER —The honourable member will also withdraw imputations within the question—the way they are. That question really needs to be rephrased. I suggest you might do so.

Mr Martin —Rule it out of order.

Mr SPEAKER —No. I have asked the member to rephrase his question. The honourable member for Griffith still has the call, but he will rephrase his question.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —Members of the opposition will remain silent.

Mr McDOUGALL —Mr Speaker, I will repeat the second part of the question. Is it the case that opponents of the full sale of Telstra not only oppose relieving future generations of debt but also stand in the way of massive communications infrastructure improvements in rural and regional Australia?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I start my answer to the honourable member's question—and I think those who are interested in future generations will pay close attention to this—by saying that at 30 June 1998, the total federal government debt of Australia stood at just over $82,000 million. Almost all of that had been accumulated by the man who sits opposite me when he was the Minister for Finance in the Keating government.

One of the great benefits to Australia of disposing of the remaining two-thirds of Telstra is that in one hit we would remove almost half of the national debt Kim Beazley left to the future generations of Australia. That is of itself the greatest single argument in favour of the government's policy. I reassert to the parliament that the government remains committed to the full privatisation of Telstra. That remains government policy because we believe that removing the debt burden on future generations is desirable. We are not people who believe in loading future generations of Australians with debt. When Mr Keating and the Leader of the Opposition ran Australia, they loaded billions of dollars each year of debt onto future generations. If we can proceed with the full privatisation of Telstra, we will achieve by the year 2001 a situation where this country will have the lowest national debt level of virtually any country in the Western world.

There are those who sit opposite and those in the Australian community who apparently regard that as being of no account, but the benefits of reducing debt are enormous. You have lower interest rates. The money you would otherwise use to service that debt can be used to build roads, to service hospitals, to provide better education benefits, to build-up our defence forces and to do all of those things that the men and women of Australia want. Instead of that, the Leader of the Opposition would rather have $40 billion that could be used to retire debt and the interest savings on that debt retirement tied up in public ownership. Yet this is the same man who sold the Commonwealth Bank. This is the same man who sold Qantas. This is the same man who said one thing to the Australian people before the election and said another when he was put into office. No wonder the Labor member for Dickson, Mrs Cheryl Kernot, had this to say.

Opposition members —Hooray!

Mr HOWARD —No wonder the Age on 26 February 1996 reported the member for Dickson as saying, `I think Labor in opposition won't sell Telstra, but I'm more worried about Labor in government.'

Mr Brereton —He's conceding! She's the member!

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Kingsford-Smith!

Opposition members —Hooray!

Mr SPEAKER —The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Members of the opposition will remain silent.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —Members of the opposition will remain silent if they wish question time to continue.

Mrs Crosio —You have got it right.

Mr SPEAKER —I warn the member for Prospect. I asked you to remain silent. If you keep intervening, I do not wish you to stay here.

Mr Tony Smith —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I am the member for Dickson and I am not a member of the Labor Party.

Mr SPEAKER —That is not a point of order.

Mr HOWARD —Whatever she is, this is what she had to say: `I think Labor in opposition won't sell Telstra, but I'm more worried about Labor in government.' The major reason the government remains committed to the sale of Telstra is that we believe in reducing and not increasing the federal government debt of Australia. We inherited almost $100 billion of government debt from the Keating-Beazley government. We have set about reducing that debt by turning an annual deficit of over $10 billion into a surplus of over $2½ billion. On current projections, with the sale of Telstra, by the year 2002 we will have a debt to GDP ratio of only 1½ per cent. It will be amongst the lowest in the industrialised world, and those who oppose the full privatisation of Telstra stand for a debt ridden Australia in the 21st century. They stand against relieving future generations of young Australians from that debt burden. They are against using the interest payments to provide better education, better schools, better roads and better defence facilities. In other words, they have a backward-looking, negative attitude towards the development of Australia.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —When the House is silent! The level of conversation in the chamber is far too high.