Telstra executives should be "doing cartwheels" for reaching a preliminary agreement to lease a "hole in the ground" to NBN Co for billions of dollars, according to the leader of the Nationals in the Senate, Barnaby Joyce.
In a biting tirade against the Government, Joyce said the $11 billion agreement announced yesterday was "a brilliant deal for Telstra."
"No wonder Telstra is happy," Joyce shouted.
"Telstra should be doing cartwheels, cartwheels about this deal because they [retain] ownership [of the passive infrastructure].
"What we're doing is just handing money to Telstra. They get a $5 billion rent on their ducts.
"We don't own them. NBN [Co] doesn't own them. Telstra retains ownership of them.
"It's a brilliant deal for Telstra and they get to lose the universal service obligation - they can flick that one out the door. The protections that we put in place, they can flick that out the door. Protections gone, money's in, debts gone up, its a typical Labor deal."
Joyce said that the long-term arrangement amounted to "leasing a hole in the ground".
"You're leasing a hole in the ground and the rent's going to cost you 5 billion dollars," Joyce said.
He also said that handing the universal service obligation over to the newly-created USO Co amounted to "privatising the guarantee to look after Australians".
"[The Government] know when to privatise something," Joyce said.
"They privatise responsibility, that's what they privatise. They privatise public responsibility."
