The Howard government plans to gag debate on legislation for the sale of Telstra in the Senate next week, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

The Minister for Communications, Senator Coonan, ducked Senator Brown's call for her to assure the Senate that the government will not gag or guillotine debate.

"Senator Coonan's plan to get the Telstra debate over by the end of next week leaves less than half an hour per Senator and no real time for public input on bills we have not yet seen. Clearly, the Prime Minister has decided to gag the Senate using his new one-seat majority.

"The Senate is about to be made a government rubber stamp," Senator Brown said.

If the government pushes the Telstra sale through the Senate in the next fortnight without full and proper scrutiny by parliament, it will deprive the electorate of its say on the sale of this crucial and valuable public asset, according to Peter Andren, Member for Calare.

"The Minister for Communications Senator Helen Coonan, wants the Telstra sale bill introduced and voted on in the next fortnight but this is completely unrealistic if this legislation is to be properly scrutinised by parliament," Mr Andren said.

"There is no draft of the legislation available to MPs and Senators and the parliamentary library has not yet seen any drafts to compile its digest and independent assessment of the bills.

"Rushing this complex legislation through the parliament cynically puts the government's political agenda before the democratic process.

"Nationals' Senator Ron Boswell says the debate is not complicated - you either want to sell Telstra or you don't, but the bills will also deal with regulating competition in the industry, the operational separation of Telstra as well as the sale legislation.

"The Nationals are the party that has sold-out country Australia for $1B now and a $2B 'future fund' and yet Senator Boswell does not believe we need to debate the details of how this is supposed to work.

"The problem for the Nationals is that they have sold their constituency short - their future fund will deliver $100m a year which will hardly cover the needs of central west NSW, let alone the whole country.

"My constituents have made it patently clear they oppose the full privatisation of Telstra sale with almost 95% of respondents saying NO to the sale.

"If the sale bill is pushed through parliament without full and proper debate, denying MPs the right to represent their constituents concerns about Telstra's future, it will be an absolute travesty of democracy.

"The government is obviously afraid of a proper debate and is treating parliament with utter contempt," Mr Andren said.