More on Telstra shareholders

I've already written about some of the commentary about the Telco reform Bill. Phil Burgess has kindly told the ABC his views as well.

He seems to be the source of the claim about Telstra giving up its rights to legally privileged advice. He said;

Just to give you one little example, because I've read the 137 pages, I've read the 200 pages. Not one of these fund managers by the way, yes they had read either the legislation or the Memorandum of Explanation. But buried away in there are all kinds of things. I mean for example, one of the nasties in there is that Telstra, if they don't comply exactly the way the Government wants things to happen, then they will lose the right to get privileged counsel from their lawyers. So the lawyer private client privilege goes out the window.

I'm trying to actually find that. I think it is only a conclusion that emerges from one construction of how functional separation may operate.

Burgess went on with the fear mongering;

When the word gets out around the globe that this Government is essentially expropriating the property of Telstra shareholders, I don't think it's going to bode well. You know we have one Hugo Chavez in the southern hemisphere is one too many. We don't need another one.

It was truly delightful that Crikey pointed out that Venezuela is actually in the Northern hemisphere.