Telstra Through The Senate as Barnaby Rubbles

T'was a historic day in the Senate today, for a number of reasons. The legislation enabling the full sale of Telstra was passed, 37 votes to 35, the 37th being a queasy Barnaby Joyce, who had earlier been in hospital with stress headaches, and who can blame the bloke? He's going to be slapping his forehead for the rest of his life. True, I guess when you have Bouncing Bill Heffernan waiting to kneecap you outside every meeting your definition of `constituency' changes pretty quickly from `80% of ordinary Queenslanders' to `National Farmers Federation with $$$ flashing in their eyes'.

In an extraordinary example of the Howard Government Not exercising unnecessary control over the Senate and Not abusing its powers, all opposition debate was gagged to allow the legislation to be rammed through at top speed. This comes despite all observers agreeing the full sale is a year off at the very least, given Telstra's atrocious share price.

News.com.au has a very interesting piece of analysis comparing the full sale of Telstra to that other contentious battle still looming on the horizon - industrial relations reforms. As Shane Wright argues, even with a Senate majority, the full sale of Telstra has cost the government a hefty $3bn bribe. How many other Joyces will the government attempt to appease to ram through other contentious legislation? Compared to IR, Telstra may prove to be a mere spot fire.

(I bloody hope so ...)