Mr McGAURAN (Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (2:58 PM) —Am I the only one who finds it a bit hard to reconcile the Labor Party’s concerns about the downward pressures on the Telstra share price when they have spent several years denigrating Telstra and talking down Telstra? I am not the only one who sees the hypocrisy of the Labor Party; anybody who has seen the Labor Party’s performance recognises its deliberate strategy over the last few years.

Mr Beazley interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition was heard in relative silence.

Mr McGAURAN —The Labor Party has been more responsible for influencing the Telstra share price than anything else in recent years. It has rubbished Telstra, even though the standards of service and the pricing levels have all been to the greater advantage of consumers wherever they live, but especially rural Australia, under this government than under the Labor Party. So the hypocrisy of the Labor Party to feign concern about the Telstra share price now or to apportion blame when it has denigrated Australia’s second biggest company unrelentingly for political purposes, for its own supposed advantage, beggars belief.

Ms King interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The member for Ballarat.

Mr McGAURAN —The Labor Party is utterly hypocritical on this point. Let me go through the alleged charges against the Prime Minister and the government in this matter, because you have to siphon the comments of the Leader of the Opposition to actually get to his key points of attack but I will pay him the courtesy of doing it. Firstly, the Prime Minister commented on Telstra executives having a responsibility to talk positively about the company and not knowingly talk down a company’s interests. Of course nobody is asking, requiring or expecting—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr McGAURAN —The Labor Party’s shouting and yelling will always be a substitute for considered debate, let alone formation of policy. That is on display again today.

Mr Gavan O’Connor interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The member for Corio.

Mr McGAURAN —As well as the bullying tactics of the Labor Party, they will always attempt to shout down, intimidate and silence their opponents. It will not work today any more than it has previously. Nobody is asking a company director or a senior executive of a company to be anything other than honest in the interests of talking up the value of the shares.

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The minister will resume his seat. The level of noise is far too much.

Mr McMullan —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: could I ask you to check as obviously something has gone wrong with the communication system in the parliament because the whip’s message has not got out to the government members.

The SPEAKER —The member for Fraser will resume his seat. There is no point of order.

Mr McGAURAN —This is the desperation of the Labor Party. You terminate question time early—you still had another question to go—because you cannot wait to construct this impression of a government under siege, a government on the back foot, whereas in actual fact the tactics of the Leader of the Opposition are a demonstration of his own imperilled position that he has to try to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. To substantiate the allegation of the Leader of the Opposition that the Prime Minister has wrongly described the responsibilities and functions of a chief executive officer of Telstra, he cites the editorial in today’s Australian Financial Review. The Prime Minister has countered that. But, if you want to quote the Financial Review of today, how about we go to the article of Alan Mitchell in the same edition at the same time when he has a good go at Kim Beazley.

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The minister will resume his seat. Despite several warnings, members on my left are not taking this seriously. I issue a general warning to all members.

Mr McGAURAN —Suspensions of standing orders are moved by leaders of the opposition in the most grave of situations when there is an issue of such burning national importance that it cannot be dealt with in the ordinary course of parliamentary business. The fact that there are bills on Telstra awaiting debate seems to have escaped the attention of the Leader of the Opposition. But the Labor Party’s behaviour undermines what a stunt this really is. This is not a matter of great concern to the Labor Party. This is not something that should be occupying the time of the parliament. It should not be interrupting question time, which is supposedly a home ground advantage to the opposition but which they terminated prematurely today. This is just a stunt. The behaviour of the opposition, the light-hearted way they are approaching this, reveals their true intent. Where is the suspense? Where is the drama? Where is a government at risk because you have moved a suspension of standing orders? Quite frankly, if the opposition are not going to take their own suspension of standing orders seriously why should we? Why should the public?

Mr Ripoll interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for Oxley will remove himself under standing order 94A.

Mr McGAURAN —A Leader of the Opposition only employs this tactic if the opposition have the government on the run, but instead it is a big joke, it is a big laugh, to the opposition because they know that when you strip away the political opportunism there is nothing of substance in the opposition’s attack on the government. Talk about devaluing the currency! The next time the Leader of the Opposition puts up a suspension of standing orders or a censure motion it should be treated with the same disgust that we now treat this suspension of standing orders. The Leader of the Opposition has kicked an own goal. If you are not going to take this issue seriously, if you are not going to argue the case, if members behind him are not going to support him in treating this issue with the degree of seriousness it needs and deserves, then no-one else in the community is going to.

It is just typical of the tactics of the Labor Party. Everything is supposed to be an easy get. In one suspension of standing orders, in the absence of any policy and in the presence of confused and conflicting statements by Senator Conroy and inconsistencies now between the member for Melbourne and the Leader of the Opposition regarding Mr Trujillo’s comments, what weight should be afforded to them—what regulatory regime should be put in place—you will not present a credible alternative to the Australian people. This is a joke. The Labor Party demeans itself and demeans the role of an opposition. You are meant to keep the government on its feet. But why would the government take the opposition seriously? You laugh, you joke and you have completely destroyed the worth of this, your own suspension of standing orders.

I refer honourable members to the article by Alan Mitchell in today’s Financial Review in which he says the government:

that is Beazley’s—

Of course it was. We know from Paul Keating that the Leader of the Opposition was weak kneed, he was gutless, he caved in to the unions at the time and prevented Keating from achieving the true competitive framework and regime that he wanted. We all know that. It is not a state secret because he broadcasts it at every opportunity. We also know that the Leader of the Opposition went with Paul Keating to a meeting at BHP with John Prescott in 1995 to explore ways of selling Telstra. Do you know what he said when he was caught out? It took a while for the journalists Laurie Oakes, Michelle Grattan and others to extract it from him. He said, ‘I was there as an opponent to the sale of Telstra.’ Paul Keating invited him along. You know Paul Keating was such a wimp that he invited Mr Beazley along just so that he could disagree with Paul Keating. Why did the department of finance, at the time under the stewardship of the Leader of the Opposition, prepare five options for the sale of Telstra? The Leader of the Opposition was in it up to his neck just as he was with the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank and several other government businesses.

Honourable members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —I remind all members that a general warning has been issued.

Mr McGAURAN —The Leader of the Opposition has no credibility, but he does have form and the way he has approached this issue in the parliament means that he regards the issue as no more serious an issue of policy and principle than he has in the past.