Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move together amendments (16), (18) and (19) circulated in my name:

(16)  Clause 96, page 79 (lines 13 to 15), omit the clause, substitute:

96 Public Works Committee Act

                 NBN Co is taken to be an authority of the Commonwealth to which the Public Works Committee Act 1969 applies under section 6A of that Act.

(18)  Schedule 1, clause 1, page 82 (line 6), omit “(1)”.

(19)  Schedule 1, clause 1, page 82 (lines 12 to 25), omit subclauses (2) and (3).

Amendment (16) has substantially already been dealt with today in the motion about the Public Works Committee but it would have substituted a new clause 96 to have the NBN Co. taken to be an authority of the Commonwealth to which the Public Works Committee Act applies. I will not repeat the arguments I made about that earlier today in respect of the motion.

The other amendments are designed to ensure that the ability of the NBN to go into retail businesses is limited. I am referring now to page 82. The aim would be, for example, that an NBN company would not be able to buy a retail carriage service provider at all. Under the current proposed bill the NBN would be able to acquire a retail carriage service provider but dispose of it after 12 months. There is no justification for that, because, frankly, if they were to buy a company that had fixed-line infrastructure but had a retail service business attached to it then it would not be very challenging to so agree that the retail service business would be disposed of prior to the completion of the acquisition. This is another example of the rigorous, belt-and-braces approach we are taking to ensure that the NBN is genuinely a wholesale-only business. What we are proposing here is entirely consistent with the objects of the act. There is simply no need for the NBN to be able to hold or control a retail service provider for any period at all.

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