Conroy lashes out at Telstra bill delay
- 26 February, 2010 11:23
- Comments (12)
Communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has hit out at the Opposition's successful attempt to block debate on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Bill (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) 2009 in the Senate.
Conroy called the Opposition's actions in the Senate where it delayed the Bill that could decide Telstra's fate, "filibustering"; a term used to describe the use of long speeches in parliament to force the delay of debate on a topic.
“Today, the Shadow Communications Spokesman has been crying crocodile tears about the draft NBN Co bills," Conroy said in a statement.
“But when it comes to allowing debate of legislation that will deliver competition benefits and a more effective market structure right now, the Liberals and Nationals have chosen to obstruct the debate."
The Bill has already been delayed several times and Conroy's stated wish of having it passed by the end of 2009 is long gone.
The push to split Telstra's wholesale and retail arms was made to wait in November last year after a lengthy debate over the emissions trading scheme (ETS) emerged.
Then other big ticket items in the Senate forced the Bill off the agenda in the first sitting starting on February 2. A spokesperson for Conroy at the time said the senator planned to have the Bill heard "this year".
“After doing nothing for eleven and a half years the Opposition are wilfully and deliberately blocking measures designed to fix problems with the existing telecommunications regulatory framework," Conroy said of the latest delay.
“The past week has seen an unprecedented coming together of key stakeholders in the telecommunications sector, representing both industry and consumer interests, requesting the Senate to debate and pass this legislation.
“The Opposition has shown their contempt for enhanced competition and consumer protection.”
Telstra (ASX:TLS) chief executive officer, David Thodey, said early in February it could be up to another six months before the company reached a deal with the Federal Government over the Telco's separation.
“It is a very complex transaction…there must be 15 major areas we have to consider and you have to have them all aligned before you can come to a conclusion,” he said.
“We all have a desire to get this agreed and get one with life... it is a distraction. If it takes another month or six months I will invest the time. I am not going to be driven into a short term decision. You could miss one thing and it could have a massive impact on the business.”
This week the Federal Government also revealed draft legislation for the regulatory framework for the operation of NBN Co.
The release of two bill drafts — National Broadband Network Companies Bill 2010 and Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures – Access Arrangements) Bill 2010 — came after a public consultation process that received more than 30 submissions.
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Comments
Peter
Conroy has hit out at the blocking of debate regarding the TLA bill at the same time his own website is blocking debate regarding the Aust web blocker? I think there may be a few contradictions going on here. What a tool.
Noel Peters
Telstra would be better off ditching their Australian assets and investing overseas. Deals can't be done with Australian governments that reinterperet the small print and change the rules.
eugene tano
politicians who dont work for a living and dont know what it is to run a business--should stay out of trying to change what telstra knows best. as they are professionals...
apprentice
Once again the media has failed to report the FACTS and swallowed the propaganda supplied by the Senator.
The bill was introduced to parliament with only 15 min. of allocated time available for debate contravening protocol which dictates that this time is set aside for "NON CONTENTIOUS ISSUES"
Proposed legislation of this importance deserves and requires a considerable period of time for rational discussion yet the Senator tables it knowing full well how the Opposition would react, breaches protocol and then points the finger at the opposition for delaying progress - Hypocrite !
It's about time the media stop being dazzled by the smoke and mirrors from Senator Conroy and fulfills their responsibility to society by investigating stories, gleaming the FACTS and reporting in an unbiased and professional manner.
.
Trevor Clarke
@apprentice - Thanks very much for the comments. You are spot on that Senator Conroy wanted to debate the bill with only 15 minutes left of the allotted period for non-controversial
legislation. The Hansard transcript shows this clearly on pages 41 and 42. However it also shows some confusion between the parties as to whether debate on the Telstra bill had been agreed upon previously to be undertaken at this time. In the end, whether the bill should have been discussed at that time or not, it was in effect delayed because of the long speeches (given with filibustering in mind or not ) on other bills slated for the same period given by the Opposition. And Conroy did lash out at the result, which we reported on.
It's certainly worthwhile noting, and something I should have included in the copy above, Senator Parry's retort to Conroy's comments in the sitting: "Noncontroversial legislation time commenced at 12.45 and it completed at 1.45. That left 15 minutes, so where is the filibustering if we are trying to talk out noncontroversial time, Senator? So your first point is totally incorrect, from the evidence of the clock alone."
He went on to say: "Why do you want to debate it for 10 or 11 minutes? It just does not make sense. Senator Conroy must have some reason—whether he is embarrassed because he
did not get it up last year, I do not know."
For anyone that wants to read Hansard from yesterday's Senate sitting you can get it here: http://bit.ly/csbTH
Mick
Shutup conroy. you are useless, and quite frankly im tired of hearing you whinge about not getting your own way.
Feel free to leave parliment right now.
apprentice
@ Trevor Clarke
Most gracious of you to admit to being in error for failing to include relevant information.
I look forward to your in depth, factually based dissection of the proposed internet filter.
Mike
Bob
Al this is only the Neo-Conservatives being worried about their shareholdings in tel$tra being devalued.
After all, that's why they privatised it so they could buy up as many shares as possible, to line their own filthy pockets with.
With the way tel$tra has been behaving since they were privatised, they full deserve to go down!
Geoff
Conroy is a waste of space, you may as well ask the parlimentary cat !
anonymous
Conboy is worse than that. If he was only useless, he would inflict less damage than he will with his stupid secret government censorship.
Conboy also seems to be an expert at using crocdile tears himself with frequent references to imposing his filter to save all the children from pedophiles, when the bloody hypocrite knows or should know that it won't do anything of the sort.
antonio truda
cant wait for election day to toss bully boy conroy and rest of labor
out of office ,
proud telstra shareholder plus 1.4 million more
Peter Fane
Conroy should take a cold shower. And Rudd needs to take a long hard look at himself and the rest of his Cabinet.
We seem to have replace one disgraceful prime minister with another.
Is Australia going to be run by a bunch of wet necked tools for another four years!!
God help us! I thought we were people of character! If so, why do we continually vote in a bunch of tools who we wouldn't even talk to in high school????
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