John Linton
...His lips move.....
What else more needs to be stated in support of that tired old chestnut from the late 19th century than Sonny Boy Conroy's quotes from this piece:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16560/127/1/1/
I could save you the bother of reading the whole sorry article with these exerpts:
"Communications minister, Stephen Conroy, has stated very publicly that he has given no indication to Telstra that the Government will intervene, and if necessary prevent the ACCC imposing regulated access on Telstra' ADSL2+ network. It is, he says, a matter entirely for the ACCC."
"Asked by host, Alan Kohler, "Have you made a commitment?" Conroy replied: "Under law, I have no role, any decision that I would purportedly make would actually hold no standing in law, this is a matter for the ACCC"
"I've made it very clear that this is properly the matter for the ACCC but on the basis of the public statements and the conversations that I had with the ACCC, I was happy to write to Telstra and if that gave them the comfort to be able to switch on 900 exchanges"
Let me take a wild guess, based on absolutely no knowledge of how OberFuhrer Conroy's "conversation" with the ACCC went:
CONROY: "Now listen up Samuel - Kevin's gotta find some way to be appear to be delivering on his election promise of making high speed ADSL available to more Australians and I'm telling you to lay off Telstra as they've promised Kev to flick a switch and allow Kev to claim he's already made it available to 2.4 million Australians within 3 months of getting elected which is twice as many as the libs did in the last three years. So, if you want to keep your job and have any hope of getting that little bonus we've talked about....I think you know what Im saying here......etc, etc."
Thus allowing this:
"What I did was, after speaking with the ACCC, confirm the view that the ACCC have put forward and agree with the position of the ACCC."
Sir Humphrey's spirit, and may God (or should that now be the rainbow serpent?) grant eternal rest to his body, lives on in the persona of Stephen Conroy.
All that needed to be said to complete that farrago of double speak is a loud and unanimous - "Yes, Minister".
...and from 10,000 kms away it still made me laugh out loud.