Senator BOSWELL (9:33 PM) —I certainly welcome the commitment given by Senator Colston to the sale of the remaining 16.6 per cent of the shareholding. What will remain in government hands will be 50.1 per cent. It is absolutely gratifying to hear Senator Colston give those commitments, because rural and regional Australia needs cheaper, faster and more clever communications, and the social bonus from the further 16 per cent sell-down of Telstra gives exactly that.

Each state stands to gain $150 million from the social bonus, but Queensland should do a lot better than that, because of the decentralisation of regional and rural Australia. Queensland is the most decentralised state in Australia. This $1 billion social bonus is to upgrade telecommunications for regional and rural Australia. Therefore, because most of this bonus will be given out on a needs basis and because regional Queensland is the biggest regional area in Australia, Queensland should do very well out of this.

Senator Margetts —It is not actually the biggest.

Senator BOSWELL —Western Australia is bigger, but it has not got the decentralisation that Queensland has. Queensland has the most digital radio concentrators, and the users who stand to benefit from them will get a $150 million network upgrade. We also have many local governments in regional areas. New initiatives that bring the total funding up to $1 billion include $158 million for the Building Information Technology Strengths program; $70 million for the Building Additional Rural Networks, or BARN, program; $45 million to help local governments to get online; an extra $3 million on top of the already announced $25 million to expand mobile phone coverage; and $3 million to fund a network to promote safe Internet content.

We have already announced $686 million, $150 million for untimed local calls and a new preferential call rate of 25c for 12 minutes. Together with the $160 rebate, that gives rural Australians the equivalent of 2.4 hours of local calls per week if their service centre is outside their zone. That is a huge initiative for rural Australia. $36 million will go to installing points of presence in each zone so that all Australians will be able to have access for local calls. Time and time again we have heard, at various points when we have gone around rural Australia, that what is required to ring their neighbour—or sometimes, on their own property, to ring down to the cottage—results in a timed called.

There is $70 million for Rural Transaction Centres to restore services to the bush, like Medicare, banking, post, fax and phone. A $120 million TV fund extends SBS to another one million Australians for the first time and eliminates TV reception black spots for others. Of this, $10 million goes to small self-help towns to subsidise the cost of equipment necessary to receive the second commercial broadcaster. The government has also boosted the universal service obligation to ensure that 64 kilobytes of data downlink speeds will be available on demand to all Australians. Regional Australia also benefit significantly from the $250 million boost to the Natural Heritage Trust.

The package for the bush is historic in size and it follows intensive negotiations by National Party senators with the minister, Senator Alston, and also the Prime Minister. The final package delivers much more than the Queensland National Party asked for in its Bundaberg resolution as a prerequisite to supporting the full sale of Telstra.

I was going to move amendment ER249, which reduces the government's holding in Telstra by 16 per cent down to 50.1 per cent. If that is not in front of the chair at the moment, I will say that if it gets to be the question before the chair, then I will take the advantage of moving it. At the moment it is doubtful whether we will get to it because of the guillotine, but I want to signal that it is my intention to move that amendment when it comes before the chair. The amendment will secure a generational leap forward in communications and assure that all Australians, whether they be in Coen or Kirribilli, have equitable access to it.

Senator Murray —Madam Chair, I rise on a point of order, which goes to relevance. The senator should be speaking to the motion before him, which is the amendments put by the Democrats.

Senator Alston —Madam Chair, on the point of order: Senator Murray would appreciate, if he has been following the debate, that we have had many hours occupied by particularly Senator Mackay and her friends when there has been absolutely no relationship to the matter before the chair. It is particularly important in this instance, where Senator Boswell does wish to put his position on the record in relation to a matter which is unlikely to get before us until the time expires—

Senator Margetts —Whose fault is that?

Senator Alston —It is the fault of those who spent 17 hours in fruitless and irrelevant discussions which led to a guillotine being put in place. I simply ask Senator Murray for a short indulgence to enable Senator Boswell to complete his commitment which he would not otherwise be able to put on the record.

Senator Murray —If I may respond to the point of order, Madam Chair: Minister, I was not concerned with your general remarks. My concern is that you are now speaking to a specific amendment which is not before us, and we have our own amendments to deal with.

Senator Alston —My point of order was perhaps not made clearly enough, but Senator Boswell carefully refrained from purporting to speak to another amendment. He simply indicated that, if and when it came on, he would be. So he was foreshadowing an intention to do so. We are technically still considering the Democrat amendment.

The CHAIRMAN —I am sure that Senator Boswell will in some way relate his comments back to the Democrat amendments in due course.

Senator BOSWELL —I will try to take up the challenge to talk to the Democrat amendments, but I say this: I am very pleased that Senator Colston is going to support this bill, because a vote against it would deprive rural Australia of fairness, equity and a future. It is with a great deal of happiness, Senator Colston, that I note that you are going to support this bill, and I welcome it.