Telecommunications
Telstra “split” bill set for defeat in Senate
(19 March 2010) The Senate looks set to reject legislation designed to bring about either the structural or functional separation of Telstra.
Family First Senator Fielding has given his clearest indication yet that he will not support the bill, arguing that Telstra should not be forced to negotiate with the Government and NBN Co “with a gun at its head”.
The legislation if passed would oblige Telstra either to agree to transfer its traffic over time to NBN Co or to have functional separation imposed on it, as well as being forced to divest its pay-TV assets and be denied access to spectrum.
Fielding’s opposition would be enough to ensure the bill was not passed. But Green’s Senator Ludlum has also been increasingly vocal about his concerns over both the Government’s handling of the NBN project and the related legislation. His concerns over the transparency of the project were reflected in a successful motion in the Senate calling on the Government to table the NBN Implementation Study by Wednesday 17 March.
While Ludlum has not signalled how a failure to comply with the motion might affect his vote on the bill itself, it seems reasonable to expect that he is positioning the Greens to have the option of voting against it – at least this time around.
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