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.
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