Dr SOUTHCOTT (9:06 PM) —Before the break we were discussing the privatisation of Telstra. Karl Marx ended his communist mainfesto 150 years ago with these words:

When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character.

He was saying that the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie would end only when the capitalist system had been destroyed and the nation-state was controlling the means of production, distribution and exchange of industry. For a long time, this was a fundamental principle for Marxists and for communists around the world.

When Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, he seized the assets of a private telephone company, ITT. Thirty-five years later he sold off 49 per cent of the Cuban telephone company to Mexican and Italian phone companies. In 1995 Albania, for a long time one of the most recalcitrant communist states and one of the most isolated communist states in the world, established legislation to provide for the privatisation of their telco organisation.

In South Africa, the ANC, for so long out of power, together with the South African Communist Party, in 1997 privatised 30 per cent of their national carrier, Telkom. What that shows is that, while Communist parties around the world have been able to give up the principle of state ownership of government business enterprises, the ALP still remains committed to state ownership. The dinosaurs of the Australian Labor Party still believe in it and we want to know why.

We know that since 1921 the ALP has had as its party objective the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange for industry. It has been there since 1921. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, he removed the socialist objective from British Labour's platform. We want to know why Labor is unable or unwilling to remove the socialist objective from its platform. I do not think that the members of the Labor Party or the Leader of the Opposition are Marxists, communists or even socialists, but on the issue of privatisation the ALP is inconsistent and confused. After all, what is different about Telstra when you compare it with the Commonwealth Bank? What is different about Telstra when you compare it with Qantas? What is so special about Telstra compared with the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories?

When the ALP was in government it even privatised part of Telecom. It sold off Aussat. As we reflect on places around the world, it is fair to say that in Britain Tony Blair perhaps reflects his times. One of the features that we have seen in recent years has been the increase in share ownership amongst the Australian people. We now have the second highest levels of share ownership around the world. John Howard has stated two goals that we should aim towards and they are the twin goals of making Australia the great share owning democracy in the world and making Australia the second financial centre in the Asia-Pacific after Tokyo. Australian mums and dads want to own shares. Only the Labor Party will deny them.