Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

A few interjections will help. Minister, why don’t you accept the reality here that your definition is inadequate, that your definition will see scope creep by NBN, that your definition leaves that wide open? Are you not accepting this because you are happy for that to happen from a budgetary perspective? Is it all about getting better return from NBN Co. somehow down the track? Is what you desire here somewhere? Is that what you are after?

The opposition has tried constructively here to propose an alternative amendment to this. We do not draft these amendments for fun, you know, Minister. We do not do it for fun at all. We have done it to ensure that there is something here to debate, to say, ‘Let’s make sure that we keep you to your word.’ If you want this to be a wholesale only network, the challenge is here. Support this amendment or come up with something else, but tell the chamber before we vote on this what the alternative is, to keep you to your word.