Going a Few Better than Kerry

Monday, 25 November 2002

John Quiggin, comments today on this report in Australian IT that the government intends deferring any further sale of Telstra shares another 12 months. John suggests that, as the Government believes that Telstra can't remain "half-pregnant" forever, it's time for them to bite the bullet and renationalise.

I doubt that the government will adopt this suggestion but if they do, at Telstra's current market valuation, it will give the lie to Kerry Packer's famous remark (after he bought the Channel Nine Network back from Alan Bond for much less than Bondie had paid to buy it from Kerry) that "You only get one Alan Bond in your life." Whether Abraham Lincoln's famous maxim on the credulity of the electorate would be similarly tested is open to question.