Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given that the government today is so supportive of the comments of the OECD, does the minister agree with the OECD Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Service Policies, which concludes in relation to structural separation:

Vertical separation is a significant intervention in the market place with substantial and—unlike behaviour regulation which can be reversed—irreversible costs—

and also that there is little evidence that the benefits of structural separation are sufficiently in excess of costs?