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Thursday, 20 March 1997
Page: 2055


Senator MARGETTS(7.05 p.m.) —This seems an extraordinary circumstance. The circumstance today indicated that Vodafone were telling us, `You let us do something not nice or we'll do something worse.' I think it is an appalling situation that we have got to this stage in relation to telecommunications and we are finding already that we have a situation that seems to be out of the control of government. The indication is here that it should be out of the control of the Senate as well, in terms of providing a situation where people should behave reasonably within the community in relation to the collocation of towers or their actions in relation to whether or not they abide by reasonable community standards. How have we got to the situation in the Senate where we almost have a gun to our head and are being told, `You allow us to do something you do not like or we'll do something worse'? I would like the minister to explain how we have allowed ourselves to get to this situation.