Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That intervening business be postponed till after consideration of government business order of the day no. 6, Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009.

I just wanted to note some of the very lengthy speeches that we have already had to endure during this period of traditionally short speeches and non-controversial matters. One could even assume, if one had a suspicious mind, that the opposition would once again seek to frustrate even bringing a bill on for discussion. This bill represents an historic restructuring of the telecommunications sector. Those opposite have spent all morning trying to avoid having to face up to the fact that this is a bill that they did not have the courage to put in place when they sold Telstra. This is a market structure that should have been put in place. Those opposite failed the test on economic credibility when they were in government; they failed to do any serious heavy lifting in microeconomic reform. This is a bill that was agreed to be brought on. Now those opposite have indicated—although I hope they are going to finally see their way to having the actual bill debated, to bring this on for debate.