Ludlam plea to Coalition to debate Telstra bill

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has issued a plea to Coalition Senators this afternoon to "stop wasting time" that could be spent working through 20 pages of amendments to the Telstra split bill.

The plea came after another day of Coalition attempts to stifle committee debate on the bill.

The Government appeared to have the numbers to see the bill passed, but faced a battle to progress it to a point where it could be voted on.

Ludlam accused the leader of the opposition in the senate Eric Abetz of having "a pretty warped idea of scrutiny".

"All I'd ask on behalf of anybody listening in to the Senate today is we've got approximately 20 pages of amendments [to get through]," he said.

"Can we stop wasting time and get on with a substantive debate?"

The debate had been bogged down on just two amendments proposed by the Greens since yesterday.

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald accused Ludlam of being "sanctimonius".

He claimed that the debate had moved slowly partially because Ludlam had left the chamber during one of Macdonald's speeches yesterday, allegedly not allowing Macdonald to get answers to questions he had.

"Yesterday he wasn't even here for the entirety of my speech and now [he's] leaving again," Macdonald said.