Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has drawn a line under a tender process to select the media organisation to run the Australia Network - a ten-year, $230 million contract - terminating the tender on the advice of the Australian Government Solicitor.

The Australian Government is now duty bound to assist WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to ensure he gets a fair trial on rape allegations in Sweden, according to his advising counsel and international human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.

The federal Opposition has voted with Labor in the Senate to defeat a Greens motion that sought to force Government to intervene in legal proceedings against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to ensure he is not subject to extradition to the US.

As the NBN Company today released plans to roll-out its fibre network to nearly 500,000 homes in the next 12 months, the Australian Greens say Opposition leader Tony Abbott must now drop the Coalition plan to "demolish" the NBN if it is elected.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has survived a gag order in the Senate that would have halted any consideration of NBN-related matters - and stopped the Minister even addressing the issue - until he tabled a series of documents related to the fibre roll-out.

The Senate has demanded Communications Minister Stephen Conroy table further documents related to the National Broadband Network, including a complete version of the 'Red Book' departmental advice to the incoming government relating to the project.

Shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull's private members bill seeking to force Government to conduct a cost benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network has been defeated in the lower house by a single vote.

The NBN Company business case will not be made public until next month, despite mounting pressure from the Opposition and the Greens for the release of the document.

A cost-benefit analysis may not be the right instrument to apply to the National Broadband Network project, according to Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, who says the NBN Company business case will make more relevant reading.

At least two-thirds of the National Broadband Network's optical fibre cable in local areas would be deployed underground rather than strung overhead on power poles, NBN Company chief executive Mike Quigley has told a Senate committee.