Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Given that this bill does two very important things—improving the planning and regulatory framework for airports, drawing on the lessons of the last 14 years, and seeking to clarify ambiguous provisions—it is incumbent on the government, in the context of the National Broadband Network, and particularly incumbent on Minister Wong, to clarify the ambiguity that may exist in any discrepancy between the Prime Minister’s letter to Senator Xenophon recording her sop to the Independents for their vote and anything that Minister Wong may have given by way of indications or overtures to the Independents. These indications would have been given to the Independnts prior to what might otherwise have been their consideration of a motion that I would have sought to put to make the National Broadband Network subject to the scrutiny of a Senate committee and subject to the sort of scrutiny that this bill proposes for the regulatory framework of Commonwealth owned airports leased to the private sector. I look forward to at some stage in the near future trafficking through a few airports and hopefully ensuring, by way of scrutiny, that the broadband network is up to date.