Senator CONROY (Victoria—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity) (14:43): Thank you for your question, Senator Birmingham. The agreement that was reached when Minister Shorten and I convened a meeting of the companies involved—subcontractors, Telstra, NBN Co. and the unions involved—was for remediation work on asbestos. Telstra had already halted their asbestos handling and NBN Co. agreed to halt theirs while these issues were being worked through. I believe there is another meeting taking place today at some stage—it could even be finished by now—that is resolving these issues so that everyone can be sure that all of the standards are being followed. Senator Abetz interjecting— Senator CONROY: You had the opportunity to ask some questions about this at Senate estimates, and I think you did. As Mr Quigley has said consistently, asbestos was a known factor before— Senator Abetz: And you didn't do anything about it. Senator CONROY: 'You didn't do anything about it,' says Senator Abetz. You should listen to the answer rather than just mindlessly interjecting. Since it was a known factor, it was built into the NBN Co.'s training manuals. There were training courses and there were requirements. So NBN Co. have taken the asbestos issue seriously from day one. As I have said before, across the 18 months or so since we signed the agreement with Telstra, there have been 29 incidents of asbestos issues reported to Comcare—some of which have nothing to do with the National Broadband Network build in any way, shape or form. That is 0.02 per cent. But that is still too many. So, to ensure the safety of the public and to ensure the safety of the workers— (Time expired)