Foss Craig: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Foss Craig: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3356. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 I am speaking on the Commerce Commission vote which is a very very important vote and Crown entity indeed. I do note and acknowledge that the Commerce Committee may in fact have missed on page 5 of the report a slight mistake there. 
The Commerce Commission plays an essential part in the monitoring and enforcing of a very very important part of the regulatory regime across New Zealand. Part 4 of the Commerce Act obviously gets a lot of attention in the way that it has played out in courts and merits reviews and inputs reviews etc. I do note that and the committee did talk about that plus some other matters in its report. 
One of the facets of New Zealand being a small economy is that in some instances where there are one or two large players they can potentially exploit their dominant position or monopoly-type position or perhaps drive monopoly rents. Of course that is not acceptable to anyone at all—at least I am sure not to most members in this Chamber. 
 One of the harder parts about the commission’s vote is that there is an estimate there in its outputs and deliverables but it is actually very hard to estimate the time frames under which judicial processes do happen. So that does create difficulties for that vote and can provide perhaps uncertainty out there in the commercial space. It can allow so much for judicial reviews judicial processes or testing in court and then a review can happen so these may well cross over into new financial years. There can be difficulties there but I do acknowledge that the commission is doing a very good job and the committee generally noted that in its report here before the Committee of the whole House. 
One point in the report that the committee noted is that it did ask the commission about issues around convergence particularly in and around broadcasting. I think that was pretty wise of the committee because of the challenges of all things governance. In fact as mentioned here in the report on the Commerce Commission to put it in a simple way that bit of glass in our lounges that we all traditionally call the TV or the television is actually only a bit of glass. Although we all probably call it a TV it can now receive data or content traditionally by analog signal although that is switching off across the country over the next 18 months; by digital—as DTT or digital terrestrial television—by satellite; or by cable in some instances. In fact many TVs now come with either a Wi-Fi or an ethernet enabler. Additions can be put on; other little modules can be put on. The simple message there is the challenges for organisations and entities such as the Commerce Commission in broadcasting you name it having to deal with a rapidly changing digital environment under which content can now be delivered by many means that were not even contemplated when much of the legislation—be it commerce-type legislation or even broadcasting-type legislation—was put together thought of and voted upon with I am sure the best of intentions around this House. 
I do note again that the Commerce Committee talks about this on page 171 but I make the point that we just have to make sure that we maintain flexibility and perhaps be platform-neutral as within this Parliament here we devise regulatory regimes and models that entities like the Commerce Commission look after. There is also the example that a person can now read on a tablet or an iPad things off the internet they can listen to the radio they can watch TV or they can watch a movie and all of those can be from either within New Zealand or afar. They can be live recorded sped up or slowed down as the user wants. 
My point is that with regard to much of the rules and regulations that entities like the Commerce Commission have to look after we may actually have to have a look at some of these models simply because technology and the real world if you like are moving at such a fast pace that there are grey areas—which the committee did start to have a look at here—of where governance is black and white and where it is grey. Of course there are sovereignty issues around things that ultra-fast broadband brings upon our economy. 
Report noted.