Fed: Queensland Nats deliver blow to Telstra sell off = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
04-09-2000
Fed: Queensland Nats deliver blow to Telstra sell off = 2

Maverick backbencher Bob Katter, a strident critic of regional telecommunications services,
was the only one of the five federal MPs at the meeting to speak out against full privatisation.

Opposition communications spokesman Stephen Smith said the MPs' resistance to the motion
reflected badly on the parliamentary National Party.

"Other than Bob Katter, they are all out of touch with the views of rural and regional
and remote Australia, and out of touch with the views of the party," he told reporters
in Canberra.

"The Nationals in this parliament are completely and totally subservient to the Liberal Party."

A spokesman for Communications Minister Richard Alston was not immediately available for comment.

AAP kmh/pjs/br

KEYWORD: NATIONALS TELSTRA N/L 2 BRISBANE

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