The government's bid to sell its majority stake in Australia's dominant telecommunications company, Telstra Corp, appeared doomed yesterday as it struggled to find four Senate votes it needs to support the sale.
"I'll be opposing the government's bill," said Len Harris, a senator from the northeast state of Queensland and one of four key upper house lawmakers the government must win over.
The government has been wooing three other senators behind closed doors, but won't say what it's offering them as incentives to support the bill.
All independents, the three lawmakers have expressed deep reservations about how the sale will affect telephone and Internet users in rural areas, where such services are generally unprofitable.
Full privatization would make Telstra the largest company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and fulfill one of Prime Minister John Howard's longest-standing policy pledges.
At its current share value, the sale would net the government about A$30 billion (US$21 billion).
Howard's conservative government sold off 49.9 percent of Telstra in two public share offers in 1997 and 1999.
In June it introduced a new bill to offload the remaining 50.1 percent in the former national monopoly.
Howard has said most of proceeds would pay off government debt. Net federal government debt is about A$30 billion (US$21 billion).
The legislation has already passed the House of Representatives, where the government has a majority, and was debated in the Senate yesterday.
More debates are likely later this week ahead of a vote. But the government only has 35 seats in the 76-seat chamber and needs 39 votes to pass the legislation.
The main opposition parties, Labor and the Australian Democrats together have 35 senators who all say they will oppose the sale, as do two Greens Party senators.
When the sale bill was introduced to Parliament in June, to smooth its way the government pledged to pump another A$181 million (US$127 million) into improving rural telephone and Internet services.
But that has failed to convince another key senator, independent Brian Harradine.
He told the upper house yesterday he's "not convinced" that "handing over vital telecommunications infrastructure" would benefit the whole nation, or that services would improve.
The government is still negotiating with another independent, Senator Meg Lees. She's signaled support for the sale only if the government spends a substantial amount of the sale proceeds on better telecommunications and other infrastructure.
Another independent, Senator Shayne Murphy, has refused to say how he will vote.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from