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Independent Senator Nick Xenophon admits he is at a Mexican stalemate with the federal government over its national broadband network (NBN).
Labor has three days to garner Xenophon’s backing for legislation that imposes structural separation on Telstra and paves the way for the phone company’s participation in the NBN.
On Monday evening, the government decided to convince Xenophon and other independents by announcing that it would ask a parliamentary committee to examine the economic and social benefits of the AU $ 43 billion project.
That’s not good enough for the senator, who is demanding the government release the NBN’s business plan ahead of a Senate vote this week.
“The government knows how serious I am about this,” he told ABC radio yesterday.
Xenophon said the government is still talking to him about a way out of the deadlock.
“But at the moment, it’s still pretty much a Mexican stalemate.”
Labor needs the vote of Xenophon, the Australian Greens and Steve Fielding of Family First to defeat opposition in the Senate. The Greens are backing the NBN on condition that its privatization is approved by parliament, while Fielding has yet to reveal how he will vote.
As the feuds continue, Treasurer Wayne Swan has confirmed that the government has hired outside business advisers to test the assumptions behind the NBN’s business case.
He called this decision “normal business practice”.
The finance department tasked corporate advisors Greenhill Caliburn to review the robustness of the 30-year business plan and 2011 business plan of the network deployment company, NBN Co.
“It’s just common sense… At every stage of NBN’s development, we have sought outside advice,” Swan told ABC Radio.
The treasurer declined to say whether he had read NBN’s business plan, taking a position similar to that of Prime Minister Julia Gillard at Question Time on Monday.
Swan said the plan was still the subject of critical discussions in Cabinet and would not be released until next month, after Parliament rises for the long summer recess.
He would not speculate on the possibility of a recall from Parliament after the publication of the plan, a move reported by Xenophon.
-AAP
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