Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I am asking you a question, Minister. I am expecting that you might do the Senate the courtesy of actually listening to questions so that you might answer them. This just shows contempt. There he is. He has hung up the phone, so he is listening.

Senator Conroy, can you please tell us if the department is currently working on additional amendments? If so, why are we bothering with this farce of a debate? Why don’t we just refer the amendments to a committee to be looked at? Let TransACT work out whether the amendments actually deal with the very genuine concerns they raised in the committee. Let Telstra and Optus work out whether the amendments genuinely deal with the concerns they raised. If other amendments are currently being drawn, please tell us so that we all know where we are going. It is pointless debating these amendments that you have put on the table if they are not the final amendments.

In deference to crossbench and Greens senators, I now report to the chamber that Senator Xenophon and Senator Ludlum are in the chamber taking part—