The Red-Capped Prophet

Well, Barnaby Joyce has headed off into the wild agrarian red yonder to get his instructions on the Telstra vote, and so we all pause for breath while he does it. Intriguingly, good ol’ Barny won’t be told what to do by the democratically elected members of the Nationals partyroom, but he’s happy to take orders from the undemocratically elected boys at JBP House.

Its intriguing too, that in all the talk of Telstra sales and brown paper bag buggery, no-one has really come up with an effective argument as to why we need sell the damned thing at all. The only justification offered has been that Barny and the Boys get $3 billion. If there’s a good economic rationale for getting rid of an asset returning $3.7 billion to the government every year in profits, I haven’t heard it yet.

I’m not such a socialist as to bang on about how the government should hold onto companies at all costs. But if turning Telstra into an efficient, profitable enterprise is the goal of privatisation, it’s been done. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? You’d be a damn fool to sell the goose that lays the golden eggs, would you not?

Which returns us to Barnaby. Obviously, good public policy isn’t his area of competence. It seems his only objections stem from how much money the bush gets. To be fair, he is a National from Queensland, I suppose….and not all bribes come in brown paper bags….