Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is not appropriate for these instruments to be legislative instruments because Telstra will require clarity and certainty on the matters set out in the instruments before it proceeds with structural separation. You have a balance between wanting to guarantee that certainty and wanting another level of oversight. The level of oversight would genuinely not allow the process to proceed in an appropriate time frame and with the certainty, and that would be a self-defeating exercise.

Question put:

That the amendments (Senator Birmingham’s) be agreed to.