Mr McDOUGALL (8:34 PM) —As I was saying before the dinner break, today the Labor Party speaks with a forked tongue. Today, having conveniently forgotten they told the people they would not sell off the Commonwealth Bank and then doing so, they have the temerity to question this government's honesty. I want to remind the good people of my electorate of Griffith of the position of the Labor Party on the matter of the sale of Telstra. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Beazley) was guest at a luncheon of Department of Finance officers in May 1994. During his address, he referred to the matter of selling government assets. He said:

Asset sales allow the Government to maintain public services and benefits to the Australian people, while maintaining the deficit reduction strategy without increased taxes.

In this same speech the Leader of the Opposition went on to confirm his and the Labor Party's support of the sale of government assets. He said:

Despite some critics suggesting asset sales amount to `selling off the family jewels', they do not result in a loss of infrastructure, but rather a transfer of ownership.

That is what the Leader of the Opposition said just four years ago. He did not refer directly to Telstra in that particular speech but he did the following month on the television program Meet the Press . The Leader of the Opposition said:

Privatisation in the limited sense would work . . . I mean you could privatise Telecom if you set your mind to it.

Now, of course, as part of Labor's fallback position, the scare campaign, we have a completely different story. Now the Leader of the Opposition is saying things like there are no benefits from the privatisation of Telstra and there are no benefits for competition. Is this the same man? One year there are benefits—the year the Leader of the Opposition is intimately involved in the sale of more government properties than in the history of any previous federal government; the next year, when they are in opposition, it is not a good idea. In fact, it is such a terrible idea that the Labor Party is going to block it in the Senate.

It is quite alarming to see a party so obsessed with power that it will even turn on itself and deny its own policies. This action proves—as if there were any doubt—that Labor's only goal in opposition is to destroy—to heck with the good of the nation. We have seen this here today. Labor's habit of doing one thing when in government and saying the exact opposite when in opposition is becoming tiresome, to say the least. When I was a child it was called `telling a porky'. Therefore, as we cannot expect the needs and concerns of the nation to be addressed by the Labor Party, we must listen closely to the people of Australia to get it right. First, this government makes it quite clear that no further sale of Telstra will take place without an explicit mandate by the Australian people at the next federal election, as promised in 1996. Second, the coalition government is acutely aware of the concerns of the people that the sale will in no way diminish Telstra's standard of service. Instead, this government is setting up parameters to ensure that the service is not only maintained but improved.

I believe it is important that Telstra remain an Australian company. This government will ensure, by law, that Telstra remains majority Australian owned. No single foreign interest will be allowed, by law, to own more than five per cent of Telstra. Aggregate foreign ownership is limited to 35 per cent. The chairman and the majority of the board have to be Australian citizens. Telstra's headquarters will, by law, remain in Australia. To all those people who have been sending me e-mails about the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment, I assure them that the MAI will not affect the government's ability to restrict the foreign ownership levels of Telstra—that is, of course, if we sign the treaty. The MAI will explicitly allow for restrictions associated with such privatisations. The MAI allows each country to nominate areas to be exempt from the agreement. This government has lodged 28 reservations which cover a whole host of areas, particularly including telecommunications. We will retain sovereignty on Telstra and cannot nor will not be overridden by any international agreement.

Now that Labor sold the Commonwealth Bank, after solemnly promising it would not, it is opposing the sale of Telstra. But it does not really give any sound reason why. There is the standard Labor bogey that it will cost people their jobs. Why will it? It is well proven that competition brings growth, and growth means employment. I suspect these are the same political pessimists who said that the introduction of computers would put people out of work. Many of us can remember the dramatic union action which took place back in the 1970s, ostensibly to protect people against their perceived replacement by machines. When I look at the computer paraphernalia around my office, and I might add my home, and the number of people now employed in sustaining these machines, I am prepared to say computers created thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, more jobs than they replaced.

The communications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. Telstra is hardly a static company. It will continue to expand its horizons, will continue to introduce new technology and will continue to outsource its services. Reducing the number of people on the payroll while employing more people out in the field is consistent with most companies in this day of information technology. If we use British Telecom as a guide, we see that this giant corporation reduced its employment by 7,500 over the last four years, but the British telecommunications industry created 19,500 new jobs as competition allowed for rival companies to expand their networks. (Quorum formed)

More jobs have been the trend right around the world as countries privatise their communications carriers. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that employment in the telecom and cable industry in the United States has risen by nine per cent in the past five years. The privatisation of Telstra will allow Australians to be more than employees or users of Telstra; they will be shareholders with a say in the future of the company. Everyone, whether a shareholder or otherwise, will see improved services due to the competition created by this privatisation. This has been the pattern with Telstra and many other companies involved in information technology and communications.

Telstra has to adopt modern procedures to offer the people of Australia the services they demand, but the government is not without power in this area. To ensure that all Australians receive the service they are due, the government has established a customer service guarantee. This is the first time such a guarantee has been established by a government, which begs the question: why was it not done before? Why didn't the Labor government consider it important to ensure Telstra customers had a voice? The coalition will ensure Telstra is legally required to meet service standards, and that means down to the nitty-gritty, such as the time taken to connect a new telephone service. Under this government's legislation, a faulty phone service must be repaired within one working day of the fault being reported or the provider has to pay the customer the monthly standard rental charge for each day it is late in repairing the phone service.

I have seen criticism on this point arguing that Telstra can afford to pay such fines. They are missing the point. The government is aware that some carriers may be willing to pay the compensation rather than meet the standards set out in the bill, but we have upped the ante, and failure to comply with a direction will attract a penalty of up to $10 million. This government's publicly announcing that it considers Telstra's service levels to be unacceptable is a far cry from the previous government's inaction. This government says the service is unacceptable and introduces legislation and serious fines to ensure it must be improved.

There is no hidden agenda here. But it is easy to see why the opposition have chosen a scare campaign—they expect the public to believe that this government plays by the same underhand rules as Labor does as a matter of course. I do not believe that Australians are that easily fooled. The Australian public responded with enthusiasm to the Telstra float last November, as did 92 per cent of Telstra employees. For many, it was their first investment in the stock market. But it is not just those who are now stockholders who will benefit from further privatisation of Telstra. The vast bulk of the proceeds of the sale will be used to help pay off the debt left to Australia by the previous Labor government. This will free up funds for those vital areas of social welfare such as aged care.

This government is about creating jobs, freeing the people of Australia from their massive debt burden and creating funds for social welfare and welfare reform. The coalition is telling the people of Australia that it does not believe the business of government is to be in business. The business of government is to create an environment in which business can flourish. I believe transition to full private ownership will be of great value to all Australians. First, it will improve our economy. Second, it will create jobs due to competition and expansion of the industry. Third, Telstra will no longer belong to the government; it will truly belong to the people.