Senator BUCKLAND (3:24 PM) —I too rise to speak on the answers given by Senator Coonan to questions today. One thing that really does stand out about the difference between Labor and the government in relation to Telstra is that Labor will absolutely never sell Telstra. We will keep Telstra as a majority public owned company delivering decent services to all Australians—not the services that are provided by this government through Telstra. Labor is committed to serving the outback and to serving people in remote and isolated areas on the same basis that it serves city dwellers. We believe that Telstra should go back to the real basics—providing jobs and services to all Australians. I was interested in Senator Coonan's comment that Telstra was protecting charges for the long-term benefit of all consumers. There was a $180 million profit from the last increase alone, yet not all consumers have easy or good access to Telstra services. We talk about travel and we talk about mobile phone linkages between major centres. I can tell you that there is not clear access for mobile phones between Adelaide and Whyalla, Adelaide and Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Augusta and Whyalla and Port Lincoln. Certainly, on the west coast, when you leave the confines of Port Augusta you cannot pick up a mobile phone signal again until you get to Ceduna, some 400-plus kilometres away.

The same goes for the south-east of the state. If you go off the main highway you lose phone contact for many hours at a time. If you go north towards Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, Marla or Glendambo, you will get coverage between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy for 25 kilometres, if you are lucky, as you go past Woomera. That is the total service that you have for your mobile phone. Then you talk to the people who live in those remote outback areas, to the graziers in the areas of Oodnadatta, William Creek, Marla, Maree and the station country. They have difficulty getting landline access to their Internet services. In fact, in some locations they can wait two hours for simple emails to open—two hours to open an email because the service is so poor.

I am interested too in the attitude of The Nationals, particularly the Queensland Nationals. I thought at one stage that they were going to go to the wire on this and that it could have caused a bit of a revolt within the coalition. They were going to stick by Telstra forever and a day. But of course they say one thing in Queensland and another here. John Anderson stated at the Queensland Nationals conference on the weekend that he opposed the sale of Telstra until regional services were up to scratch. But the Deputy Prime Minister has voted twice in this parliament to sell Telstra, with no strings attached. John Anderson says one thing in Queensland but he comes to Canberra and he has a totally different attitude. But that is not all. The Nationals really do not know where they are going with this. They know that if Telstra is privatised services will get worse and prices will rise. Telstra will leave town faster than the banks, and The Nationals know it. But they are too afraid when they come to Canberra to say anything to their coalition partners. They just sit back, get their tummies rubbed, and all is good. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.