Coalition, Greens to demand NBN documents

The Coalition and the Australian Greens are expected to use their numbers in the Senate in a bid to make the government immediately release key national broadband network documents.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was on the defensive on Tuesday as he rejected calls to have the $43 billion rollout subjected to a Productivity Commission probe.

The architect of Labor's contentious infrastructure program faces another battle on Wednesday as the Greens, a supporter of the NBN, demand more details on the financial viability of the project.

Senator Conroy has previously said he would release "elements" of the business plan developed by NBN Co - the company rolling out the network.

But the opposition's broadband spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has indicated he will support the Greens' motion to have the NBN business case tabled in parliament in November.

Australian Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam's motion will also call on the government to release its response to a $25 million study into the rollout.

"The government never had their formal views on record and it's time they did," Senator Ludlam told AAP.

"The minister has been crowing, 'the business case is wonderful' ... what use is it looking like they're trying to hide what taxpayers are funding with $43 billion?"

Consultant McKinsey-KPMG gave the government a report in May, recommending full public ownership until the rollout was completed.

It also projected that the network would deliver the government a commercial return of $40 billion within the next 15 years.

The federal government has rejected opposition demands for the Productivity Commission to prepare a cost-benefit analysis on the NBN.

Mr Turnbull said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Conroy had something to hide.

"The only reason she doesn't want it to go to the Productivity Commission, and this is exactly what her minister has been telling the independents so we know this is what she really thinks, is that they believe the Productivity Commission will find it is not a good project and it has been poorly conceived," he told Sky News.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull later told AAP the coalition would vote with the Greens in the Senate on Wednesday to demand the release of key NBN documents.

Even if the move is successful in the Senate, the motion would be unlikely to pass in the lower house considering that the independents, who helped Labor form government, have rejected a previous attempt by Mr Turnbull for the NBN Co to publish a 10-year financial plan.

Senator Conroy rejected the call for a cost-benefit analysis, arguing it would only mean Australians had to wait longer for faster internet.

"If (the Liberal-Nationals) were serious about ensuring that Australians got access to the world's best class broadband network, they would be supporting the national broadband network," he told parliament.

Independent MPs Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie have rejected the coalition's call for an NBN cost-benefit analysis call, arguing it would fail to account for future technology.

Mr Windsor and fellow independent Rob Oakeshott voted against coalition amendments on Tuesday to have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission supervise the structural separation of Telstra as the NBN was rolled out.

The independents and the Greens are against a coalition push to have a joint select parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the NBN, when a Senate committee already exists.

Senator Conroy said he received the complex 400-page NBN business plan only on Monday last week.

"I have already had a three-hour briefing on it. I have another four-hour briefing myself coming up later this week. Then it has to go to my cabinet colleagues and ultimately the cabinet makes this decision," he told ABC television.

Senator Conroy said the government was committed to releasing as much information from the business plan as possible without breaching commercial confidence.

"So there is a whole range of information which we will be making available. But until the cabinet has had a chance to be briefed on it yet, I am not in a position that I can commit to when it will specifically be released."

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