Too Important To Discuss ?

So the Liberals pushed through the bill for the sale of Telstra keeping discussion to a minimum. I thought democracy was about talking about things! If this goes horribly wrong (which it’s quite likely to) then it’ll be a case of “Act in haste, repent at leisure”. Except it’ll be the Australian public who suffer, even though 70% of Australians oppose the sale.

To sell off the telco, the Liberals:

• Introduced the 5 bills to Parliament on Thursday;
• Held a one day Senate inquiry on Friday, giving people about 12 hours to read the bills beforehand;
• Brought the 5 bills to the Senate today and got them passed by supressing discussion through a guillotine motion.

This is the same company that has 14% of all phone lines faulty, admitted massively under-investing in its network and then its directors awarded themselves massive pay rises.