why is telstra being punished, page-18

see only hc country whingers care The farmers don't care, its only the whingers from QLD that do lol



Saturday August 26, 12:01 PM
Farmers say Telstra sale 'unimportant'

The National Farmers Federation has greeted the government's sale of a portion of Telstra with a shrug of the shoulders.

The farming body said ownership of the giant telco was unimportant, as long as regional telecommunications services were upheld.
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"Sale or no sale is neither here nor there, what we want to maintain is services in regional Australia," a federation spokesman told AAP.

But NSW Independent MP Peter Andren held a very different view, describing the part sale as a "staged fire sale".

Mr Andren, a long time campaigner against the privatisation of the telco, said the decision to only sell one third of the government's stake would leave existing shareholders worse off.

"It's going to leave existing shareholders with a bunch of dead wood," Mr Andren told AAP.

"They (the government) park the rest in the future fund and dribble it out when the market looks like it might be promising.

"This is going to hurt the Nationals badly in the bush, people are so fed up with this process where their concerns are completely disregarded."

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce did not immediately return AAP's phone call while Country Liberal Party senator Nigel Scullion was at a party conference and unavailable for comment.