The Senate community affairs legislation committee will hold a quick-fire inquiry into the two bills establishing the National Cancer Screening Register, with Labor set to propose amendments to the bills insisting that the operation and control of the register remain in the hands of the government.

Telstra Health was awarded the $178.3 million contract to build and operate the register, which will move the current national bowel cancer screening program to an electronic from a paper-based system and bring the state and territory cervical cancer screening programs together, in May.

Telstra Health has already begun work on designing the system, meeting with the Department of Human Services and the states and territories to document business processes. It has also met with pathology providers and with general practice representatives to discuss integrating the system into GP software.