Telstra breakup bill debate resumes

By Ben Grubb on Oct 30, 2009 6:32 AM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Conroy wins crossbenchers over.

A Senate order canning debate on Communication Minister Stephen Conroy's bill to break up Telstra and give the competition watchdog stronger powers has been overturned.

The order - initiated by the Opposition - prevented debate of any NBN-related bill until Conroy tabled his NBN expert panel report and accompanying ACCC report.

Parts of both were tabled in parliament earlier in the week, resulting in the inadvertent leak of Telstra's network value.

The vote to resume debate on the bill was tight with 30 votes in the positive and 29 in the negative. The Senate order will remain in place for any other NBN-related bills.

Conroy won support of all crossbench Senators including Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon in the vote.

A spokesman for Xenophon told iTnews the Senator was now happy for the bill to be debated because an inquiry was underway as to the direction of the NBN.

"Nick had some concerns previously about claims of commercial in confidence when it came to the tender documents relating to the NBN," the spokesman said.

"The Government subsequently agreed to an inquiry into the use of commercial in confidence by government. And on that basis - with that inquiry agreed to and the reporting back in the first sitting week of next year - Nick was happy to vote for the debate to continue".

Senator Fielding told iTnews this afternoon that he was preparing to meet with stakeholders to discuss how he should vote on the bill when the Government brought it back into the Senate.

"Obviously I've been going backwards and forwards between the major players which is obviously the Government, the Minister and also through Telstra," Fielding said.

"Those conversations have been progressing well given that the bill won't come in for debate for a couple of weeks and it gives me some time to see a few of the other players and other people's perspectives on it".

But he would not reveal how he would vote when it came to debating the bill.

"I've got one vote. A very important vote. But we'll have to wait and see how that unfolds. I do want to make sure that I use that other couple of weeks just to make sure that I've got the various views and to make sure that is a very well considered decision," Fielding said.

Opposition Communications Minister Nick Minchin said he was "disappointed" the bill had been exempted from the Senate order.

A spokesman for Senator Conroy earlier this week said the government remained "committed to passing these vital reforms this year".

7 comments in this discussion

"@mick09 (& RDEFCON1) - It would help if you read what others say in this thread before taking up more space asking questions that have already been answered. And you can't count either. There ..."

By anonymous

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Comments: 7

Digger11 Oct 30, 2009 10:14 AM	Fielding is from Family First isn't he???? Surely the only possible way for him is to vote is Yes to NBN (i.e. split up Telstra) as this will bring the greatest benefits to all Australian families and not just the greedy minority family shreholders ???
RDEFCON1 Oct 30, 2009 12:28 PM	@ Digger11 Telstra has something like 1.4million shareholders. At elast 500,000 of these are regular Australians, more if you include Superannuation holdings. Are you suggesting all of these people represent a 'minority'? I suppose none of them have families, nor deserve to have their legitimate interests and rights protected by the government? Do you propose we treat all 'minorities' this way?
anonymous Oct 30, 2009 1:05 PM	@ RDEFCON1, if you look up from the Telstra hymnsheet, you may notice that there are 22 million regular Australians in this country. After all, it's only monopoly waffle that causes constipation. And of course many Telstra shareholders are foreign based (not that Telstra would allow you to mention that - it might spoil the xenophobic spiel it puts out about competitors).
RDEFCON1 Oct 30, 2009 2:38 PM	@ anonymous What I'm asking is, whether you and Digger consider that the 3% of Australians who own Telstra shares, and their families (which probably it up to around 10%): 1) are somehow less worthy than other Australians, or morally tainted, by virtue of their ownership of Telstra shares? 2) are therefore unworthy of havinmg their legitimate interests protected by government? 3) and whether you hold this belief with regard to other minorities in the Australian population? Further, you advance the argument that many of Telstra's shareholders are foreign to advance your argument. So any government policy is ok by you, regardless of whether it tramples the rights and legitimate interests of minorities and foreigners, as long as it delivers a benefit to the majority? Robert Mugabe and Hitler would be proud of you!
anonymous Oct 30, 2009 9:22 PM	@RDEFCON1, you should have learned long ago that anyone who plays the swastika card has lost the argument before they begin, since they obviously don't have a case. Your invocation of concern for minorities sounds clever but is misplaced and irrelevant, since none of your example minorities are powerful and arrogant bodies who have been screwing the citizens. As you are aware or should be, some Telstra mouthpieces in recent years have played the race card ad nauseam with their comments about foreigners, and my reference was clearly in relation to that. So all 22 million Australians deserve to have good, efficent comms at a fair price, and to be free from being screwed as we have been by the monopolist incumbent. If this requires unwinding some of the big mistakes made over the last twenty years, then more power to the present government who appear to be smart enough to identify the problems and who have said they will act to fix them.
mick09 Oct 31, 2009 3:18 PM	RDEFCON1 - 3 ... anonymous - 0. @anonymous “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism "In response to the instability created by the Great Depression, the Nazis sought a Third Way managed economy that was neither capitalism nor communism." "From time to time in human history there occur events of a truly seismic significance, events that mark a turning point between one epoch and the next, when one orthodoxy is overthrown and another takes its place." "The Government will invest up to $43billion to construct and operate a national broadband network in partnership with the private sector." O "to be free from being screwed as we have been" by whom, anonymous?
anonymous Nov 2, 2009 10:41 AM	@mick09 (& RDEFCON1) - It would help if you read what others say in this thread before taking up more space asking questions that have already been answered. And you can't count either. There have been two posts each way here, not three ;-)