National Broadband Network Financial Transparency Bill 2010 (No. 2) — Second Reading — Read a second time

The majority voted against a motion to read the bill for a second time. This means that the majority rejected the main idea of the bill and that it will not be considered any further.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. )

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced as a private member's bill by Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham and relates to the National Broadband Network ('NBN'), which is a key Labor Government initiative.(Read more about the NBN on Wikipedia here. ) Its purpose is to require the NBN Co to prepare a business case for the NBN and publish it by 19 November 2010. It also requires the Productivity Commission to prepare a cost-benefit analysis and publish it by 31 May 2011.(Read more about the bill here.)