The Wire

The sale of the Federal governments remaining 51.8 percent share in telecommunication giant Telstra looks set to go ahead as the Federal Cabinet today discusses the final proposal. After a bitter battle over the terms of the agreement, National’s Senator Barnaby Joyce reiterated that he was happy with the final pacakge, which would give $3 billion dollars to regional services alongside the full privitisation of the company. However others in the community are still concerned that services in rural Australia are not up to scratch, and that the money set aside for their upgrade won’t be put to good use. Charles Gregory reports.