The Abbott government has again deferred a vote on a motion to dissolve the existing Senate committee on the National Broadband Network and replace it with a Coalition-dominated joint committee.
The motion was floated on Wednesday but was deferred until Thursday for lack of support.
It will now be reintroduced in the last week of August when the Senate next sits, but the government is unlikely to proceed with a vote unless it can convince Palmer United Party senators to support it.
The existing committee has three Coalition senators, three Labor senators and one Greens senator, with two new senators having joined as a result of the new Senate. The new committee would have five Coalition members, three Labor members and one minor party member.
The committee has produced one interim report that was critical of the government's choice of a mixed-technology network design. It was understood to be working on a second report to be tabled in the next couple of months.
It was tasked with providing its final report on June 10, before changes in the Senate's make-up took effect in July. The inquiry was subsequently extended with a final report due on the last sitting day of the current Parliament. Hearings resumed last week.
