Which Australian right wing government are you referring to? Australian telecoms ran off the rails in the late 90s, the moment that the Howard government priva

Which Australian right wing government are you referring to? Australian telecoms ran off the rails in the late 90s, the moment that the Howard government privatised the state-run phone network. They either stuffed it up (thinking charitably), or pulled a dodgy related party transaction to rip off the public and enrich their mates in business who were kind enough to donate back part of the loot (thinking cynically). There were no good options after that. In hindsight, the least bad choice was to nationalise the network again, think a lot harder about competition and monopoly issues, and maybe have another go at privatisation some years down the track. But no one had the guts to do that.