Telstra sale circus: it's off again

"Telstra sale circus: it's off again" - The Age 11-9-2005

"NATIONALS Senator Barnaby Joyce yesterday warned the Federal Government that he was now poised to vote against the sale of Telstra."

Quick.. connect the Nationals to the High-Bandwidth pork-barrel pipe and open the taxpayer funded slush fund valve!

"The Queensland MP said it would be foolish to bring on the Telstra sale vote this week because there was a "$2 billion mistake" in the legislation and he would give it a "red light" in its present form."

Oh Jesus.. the future of the nations telecoms is in the hands of a Wiggle... "Wake Up Barnaby"!

"An angry Senator Joyce, who can sink the Government's sale plans with his vote, said the bid to rush through the Telstra sale had become a mess and there were "a lot of bloody holes" in it.

"Senator Joyce had previously said he would vote for the Telstra sale after the Nationals secured a $3.1 billion compensation package,"

the bid to rush through the Telstra sale was just as big a mess then, and there were already "a lot of bloody holes" in it, but why focus on all the real problems with tory regulation when the libs and Nats can pretend its a simple matter of using taxpayer funds in a phony bidding war.

What a pantomime.

"but his comments yesterday are a blow to the Government's hopes to have the Telstra sale bills pbutted this Thursday.

right outcome, wrong reason.

It allowed just a one-day Senate Committee hearing on Friday.

I'm sure another billion will swing it. (sic)

"Senator Joyce backed Labor Senator Stephen Conroy's call for the Senate to have more time to scrutinise the legislation, saying he had serious concerns about the promise to create a $2 billion communications trust fund to guarantee future bush services and the revelation Telstra would be deciding its own commitment to the bush."

Hardly surprising he has doubts because the facts as revealed show Telstra is not meeting SLAs now, unlikely to do so in the future, unable to invest in new innovations, anticipating continuing slides in share and buttet values.. and the BIG problem for Barnaby and John is that the cat is out of the bag BEFORE the sale.. and the suckers weren't meant to know till after the T3 scam.

"During Friday's Senate hearing, Communications Department officials told Senator Joyce there was no requirement for exactly $2 billion in shares to be put in the fund and that putting in as little as $20 would still comply with the act. "I've been walking around Queensland telling everybody it's a $2 billion trust fund. We haven't got a $2 billion trust fund. It might be a $20 trust fund," he told The Sunday Age."

Oh Basrnaby, Barnaby.. it's not the critical issue, it's a sideshow, but at least you realise you have been flim-flammed by the tory carpetbaggers! B^D

"If they are saying it will be an 'up to' $2 billion trust fund, you've got a red light. There's no way in the world people are going to swallow that. It just shows there's a lot of bloody holes in the legislation. We need more time. If I can dig that out in the time I had Ñ and it wasn't much Ñ what other problems have you got in there?"

He said the Government "would be kind of foolish" to bring on the Senate vote this week.

"If they demand a vote with an 'up to' $2 billion trust fund in it, I'm not voting for it."

Senator Joyce also revealed a new demand in the wake of the recent plunge in the value of Telstra shares, from $5.14 in July, when Sol Trujillo became chief executive, to $4.35 Ñ a 15 per cent fall that has wiped almost $10 billion off Telstra's market value and $5 billion from the Government's 51 per cent share.

The Government has said it will put $2 billion worth of Telstra shares into the trust fund, but Senator Joyce wants a guarantee that the value of the fund will not fall if Telstra's share price continues to drop."

B^D Ask for Bearer Bonds, Barnaby.. those Telstra shares aren't going to be worth poo!

"What's the value of the shares that will go into it?

Draw a downward sloping line from the day Howard started to flog it off and saddle it with tory socialist regulation, to now.. extrapolate that line out to some future date and read off the value.

Note; If you are below the X Axis your slush fund is as useful as breasts on a bull, and your telecom's network is now all satellite, 8^o

Enjoy those Tx delays!

But hey, it was cheap for the New Telco, Shanghai Digital and Electric, to roll out!

Don't you love efficient commocapitalist enterprise?

"Will they be market-value shares or are they going to be Government-value shares. Is there a particular mechanism to stop the value of the shares falling through the floor?" he asked."

These socialists are really getting the hang of Market manipulation.. don't you think? B^D

"I hope people are not being sneaky.

Was he looking at the Lying Rodent and Rattie Coonan when he said that? B^D

"I don't think they are, but they are in an inordinate rush

an obscene panic... must sell before wheels fall off.

É when people rush they make mistakes and they've made some clangers already."

"Meanwhile, shadow treasurer Wayne Swan said Treasurer Peter Costello was using Telstra dividends to "prop up" his budgets.

Mr Swan said the Government had harvested dividends worth almost $14 billion from Telstra since 1997, accounting for 35 per cent of the $40 billion in budget surpluses in that time."

It will be a great pity for us to lose that dividend stream. ;-)

"Last week, Parliament was told Telstra had paid for dividends out of its reserves."

In other words, telstra buttets were moved to become government revenue... thats unsustainable.

"More than one-third of the budget surpluses Peter Costello likes to brag about come from these dividends borrowed from Telstra reserves," Mr Swan told The Sunday Age. "Peter Costello would prefer to prop up his budget with these dividends (rather) than allow Telstra to invest in its network.

"It's a bit like cooking the books. It's a scandal that goes to the heart of the Government's mismanagement of Telstra."

The Government said it did not tell Telstra how much dividend to pay.

We have all witnessed Howard not telling Telstra how to act! B^p