Donnelly Brian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Donnelly Brian: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:631;Page:2989] 
8.  
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Communications 
: What will be the benefits to New Zealanders of the Government’s decisions announced last week to require the unbundling of local loop and sub-loop copper lines and the associated policy decisions? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Communications) 
: 
 Cheaper faster broadband to all New Zealanders. Access to advanced broadband services means economic growth. Along with initiatives such as the digital strategy it will ensure New Zealand’s transformation to a knowledge-based economy. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is it correct that the benefits to rural users of the local loop unbundling are not likely to be commensurate with the benefits accruing to users living in higher-density areas resulting in risks to future investment and rural infrastructure; if so what is the Government doing to ensure rural broadband users will get equitable provision? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: All New Zealanders should benefit from this package. The Government recognises that rural New Zealand is the heartland of the economy and we will not ignore this vital sector. Existing relevant initiatives include Project Probe the Broadband Challenge and the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund. A rural services package will be developed for next year’s Budget. 
Maryan Street 
: Has the Minister received any reports suggesting significantly different approaches to telecommunications? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I have not seen a substantive alternative policy but I have seen a report stating: “The National Party has not got a policy or a consideration of one in place regarding telecommunications.” A second one states: “We are not putting many fresh ideas up deliberately.” The third one is my personal favourite: “National would not reverse the unbundling decision.” The first is a quotation from Tony Ryall; the second one is from Maurice Williamson; and wait for it— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Down at the back of the House here we are dying to hear to whom those three quotes are ascribed but we cannot hear it from down here. Some of the elderly colleagues from the National Party at the back over there cannot hear either. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member has made his point. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I am making this request on their behalf as well on my own. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the Minister also talk into his microphone please. That would make it a lot easier. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I have not seen a substantive alternative policy but I have seen reports stating firstly: “The National Party has not got a policy or a consideration of one in place regarding telecommunications.”; secondly: “We are not putting many fresh ideas up deliberately.”; and thirdly: “National would not reverse the unbundling decision.” The first is a quotation from Tony Ryall the second is from Maurice Williamson and wait for it the third is from Dr Don Brash. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is the Minister aware of responses by groups including the ACT party the National Party and the Business Roundtable—which advocate the efficacy of market mechanisms for both business and the delivery of social services—to the Government’s decision to establish a level of competition in broadband supply and is he able to describe the nature of these responses without using the “h” word? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I think National’s position is best described by a letter to the editor in the  
Dominion Post  
last Monday: “Have I got this right? The National and ACT parties are in favour of free competition in the marketplace and opposed to monopolies unless the monopoly is owned by a private company and then it is Okay?”. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I do not want to ask the Minister to start from the top. Would he please now just continue on and would you please lower the tone. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Because of the barrage of noise coming from that side I was not able in fact—and I asked the question—to hear the answer from the Minister and I ask whether he could repeat it please. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the Minister please address the question with some rapidity. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The quote was: “Have I got this right? The National and ACT parties are in favour of free competition in the marketplace and opposed to monopolies unless the monopoly is owned by a private company and then it is Okay?”. The answer is that no one knows. Maurice Williamson hates our policy but has none of his own. Don Brash says that National would not reverse it. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: How does the Government intend to prevent Telecom from delaying the benefits of local loop unbundling by deliberately obstructing negotiations over reasonable terms of access as has happened overseas; and will the Government provide for regulation of the price Telecom charges its competitors for access to the local loop? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: By implementing internationally accepted principles that will be enshrined in legislation which I hope the member’s party will fully support. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does the Minister agree that businesses in New Zealand would be better off with a 50 percent or more reduction in their mobile phone bills and with other reductions in their telecommunication charges than with tiny tax cuts; and can he understand why the National Party keeps wittering on and on about tax cuts yet opposes reducing telecommunication and mobile phone charges which would greatly benefit businesses in New Zealand? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: That question was outside the Minister’s responsibility. Would you like to rephrase it so that it is within the Minister’s responsibility? It was relating to tax as I heard it. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does he believe that unbundling the local loop and thereby reducing mobile phone charges and telecommunications charges would benefit business more than a tiny little tax cut; and can he therefore understand why the National Party continues to witter on and on about tiny tax cuts while refusing to support unbundling the local loop and reducing telecommunications charges to business? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: If the Minister could address the first part of the question quickly. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The international evidence is that the measures that this Government has promised to introduce will make a significant positive impact on the New Zealand economy to the tune of billions of dollars of GDP.