Privatisation deal shores up Greens support for NBN bill

THE GREENS have defended a deal with Labor to make it more difficult to privatise the $43 billion National Broadband Network. The deal was struck to shore up Greens support in the Senate for a bill which will see the separation of Telstra's retail and wholesale arms.
The agreement will see the government forgo its plan for automatic privatisation of the NBN five years after it is built.
If opposed by the Coalition, the structural separation bill's fate will now rest on the votes of independent senator Nick Xenophon and Family First's Steve Fielding.
Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam told The Australian Online privatisation was now contingent on the approval of both houses of parliament and an independent study conducted by the Productivity Commission into the ownership of the NBN and its commercial impacts. Read more.