Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Let’s cut to the chase. We have a situation here where $2 billion was set aside with respect to the communications fund. I think it would be fair to say that that money was supported in a bipartisan fashion. That money was earmarked, quarantined for regional and rural Australian telecommunications—which obviously would principally include broadband services and the like. My concern—and I believe it is a legitimate one—is that, if you transfer it into the Building Australia Fund, there is no guarantee that the entire quantum of the money that was earmarked before will necessarily be earmarked for the purpose for which the communications fund was set out. That is my concern. I flagged that, if there were a way that that could be quarantined within the Building Australia Fund through a legislative guarantee, I would be quite comfortable with that. I invite the government, if they wish to report progress, to look at this as an alternative amendment. In the absence of that, I am inclined to support the opposition’s amendment.