Senator BOB BROWN (9:37 AM) —The Howard government has just hung up on Australia. It has slammed the phone down on the Australian people. This is the Howard government saying, ‘We will treat Australia with disdain by treating the parliament of this country with disdain.’ Here is a government that cannot maintain an argument. Here is a government that cannot defend its position. Here is a government that cannot even have its National Party here—not one National Party person is in this chamber. They are all hiding their heads in shame because they are coming in here shortly to vote to have this important debate cut short because the government is getting the worst of it and the government cannot maintain it.

Every day, the government is faced with embarrassing leaks about how this is a sell-out to the big end of town. It is going to make billions, no doubt, out of Telstra as the rest of the country suffers and as, in particular, the average punter, who the Prime Minister has been so vocal about in his years in office, gets inferior telecommunications over the big end of town, the scions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. Yesterday we saw the National Farmers Federation come out, in the service of the Howard government, against farmers, against the bush. The millionaire Donald McGauchie should be very pleased with that—and no doubt he had a lot to do with it; after all, he is on the board of Telstra now.

Here we have the big boys, the millionaires and the billionaires, dictating to this government, through this government, in the interests of themselves against the interests of average Australians. The government is saying that we cannot debate this, that we cannot hold a debate on this in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. This is a disgraceful day for democracy. This is a disgraceful day for proper parliamentary procedure. This is a disgraceful day for a parliament that should be representative of, listening to and reacting on behalf of the people of Australia.

The Prime Minister says he is there for all of us—not today he is not. He has hung up the phone. He has slammed it down on the Australian people who, seven to three, do not want this legislation going through the parliament. And where is Senator Joyce? He is missing in inaction. He is out behind the screen there being told what to do. He has been worn down. He has gone weak at the knees. He has collapsed. He says he is out their getting a better deal. Where is it? Where is it before this parliament? It is not here at all. Senator Joyce has wimped out on the very constituency that he went to the election saying he was going to defend. He was not going to sell Telstra. Now he will be voting for debate to be cut off on the Telstra bills.

The big boys have moved in and, against his conscience, Senator Joyce has collapsed. He said, ‘I’m going to see what else I can get out of it.’ I ask Senator Joyce: how do you get anything else out of it when the guillotine is dropping, cutting off those lines that you were there to defend? What an inglorious day for Senator Joyce this is. What a sell-out day for the National Party this is. What an antidemocratic day for the Howard government this is. The Prime Minister is not even here as the guillotine drops. We have five members of the government in this place, but not one National Party person, as this crucial—

Senator Ferguson —Who would want to come and listen to you?

Senator BOB BROWN —You are, Sir. You might make light of this, but the Australian people think this is a very serious matter. Certainly, we are not going to hear the government try to defend this. It is left to the opposition benches—the Labor Party, the Greens and the Democrats—to try to defend the 70 per cent of Australians who think this is a sell-out by the government, and that 70 per cent is right.