Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I am always courteous to Senator Abetz. I listen to him in silence. Perhaps he could give me the same courtesy.

I think that there are some compelling reasons why we need to deal with this legislation now. We saw what happened at the Telstra board meeting last Friday. If the deal between Telstra, the government and the NBN falls over then we will lose a golden opportunity to structurally separate Telstra and, with it, benefits to consumers in the longer term. There will be another opportunity to deal with the NBN legislation, but I think it is important that we have adequate scrutiny of this piece of legislation. What I said to the media this morning and what I said last night was that if we need to sit on Friday to deal with this then so be it. But I support the suspension of standing orders because—