Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): It is a pleasure to be able to speak here at the second reading of the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Bill. This was of course introduced by the Hon Simon Bridges last year in the previous National Government and it carries on with widespread support across the House and National supports the bill. The new regulatory framework enabled by this bill will modernise the Telecommunications Act so that it's fit for purpose for New Zealand's new fibre-focused telecommunications environment. It will put in place incentives so that ongoing investment by network providers will continue to be encouraged while consumers are looked after. It will also create a more predictable telecommunications environment target regulation more effectively and support consumers.The work began during the last Parliament and we made good progress. I do want to thank the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee of which I am currently now a member that worked their way through it but also the many submitters who went through the detailed areas of this bill and made some suggestions and the committee made some changes in relation to them. But before I go into that detail I just want to put this bill within the broader context of the economic development strategy that the previous Government brought to the table. It was all about trying to build a more competitive and productive economy here for New Zealand so that New Zealanders can have access to higher incomes and greater opportunities. When we broke down that challenge—how do you actually create a more productive and competitive economy—well there were six areas that we looked at. One was increasing the flow of investment into New Zealand because ultimately you only get jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders if somebody somewhere decides to invest an extra dollar into starting a new business hiring a new person taking a risk and getting into business.We were very concerned to increase the flow of capital into New Zealand both through domestic savings but also with open markets and open trusted markets well-regulated markets and so the work of the Financial Markets Authority and the Commerce Commission are an important part of that. Then we also focused on expanding our export markets and we see this Government is continuing the efforts there in terms of free-trade agreements with the EU and in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). We then focused on continuing to invest in the science and innovation space with $1.6 billion a year invested so that New Zealand businesses have access to a strong knowledge and science backdrop and the ultra-fast broadband (UFB) that the previous Government invested around $2 billion in rolling out across the country is a very important enabler of that science and innovation framework.Businesses also need access to a skilled and willing workforce and all MPs in this House who are out and about in the countryside and in the cities of this country are talking to businesses which are employing people and the cry that you hear most often is We struggle to find and we need to find more skilled workers." Having a good effective schooling system and production of skills coming through the polytechs and university sector is important. That's why it's so frustrating that we are seeing $2.8 billion wasted on free tertiary fees.Finally there is the area of the access to good quality infrastructure. Often when people think of infrastructure they think of roads and they think of rail but actually one of the most significant pieces of infrastructure put into this country in the past few years has been the rollout of ultra-fast broadband by the previous Government and it continues. As a result of that New Zealand is very well placed in terms of access. Now it doesn't just mean that we can watch Netflix and Lightbox and YouTube more quickly—although that is a happy outcome of this investment. It also enables New Zealanders to be connected—fundamentally faster and much much more powerfully—with the rest of the world and so for a little country in a remote part of the South Pacific we have a golden opportunity to connect.Now of course it wasn't just the Government investment in ultra-fast broadband that put us in such a good position as we are today. There has been massive ongoing private sector investment right across the telecommunications sector whether it's been through the roll-out and maintenance of the copper network but also through the many cellphone towers and the great 4G capacity that we have in wide areas of New Zealand. In fact any New Zealander travelling overseas can see the very poor quality of the mobile networks in many countries that are much more densely occupied even in the UK for example. It's amazing what we have managed to achieve in this sparsely populated country in New Zealand in terms of the quality of our network.Part of that of course ongoing private sector investment in the telecommunications framework has rested on the predictable regulatory environment that we demonstrated over nine years. I suppose it is a point worth making that that predictability and soundness in the regulatory and Government decision-making has been shaken to its very core by this Government in its first 10 months with the way that it went about the oil and gas decision for example with no evidence no analysis and no Cabinet process.Hon Tracey Martin: Unbundling fibre; turning off copper—anything to do with the bill?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: And so you have—yeah well it is highly relevant because if you want to see investment underpinning what this bill is all about in the telecommunications network the sorts of things that this Government does every day in other areas shakes that predictability and that confidence that investors have and so that is a point that's worth making. It's also a point worth making that a lot of the investment that's gone on in this sector has been from capital imported to this country from overseas. The highly restrictive overseas investment rules that this Government has also brought in—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I think that's far enough away from the bill to pull the member back. Thank you.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: And so well these are—thank you Madam Assistant Speaker for your forbearance. But these are broader issues that we need to consider when we're thinking about just how we got to this situation here where we have such a strong competitive and successful telecommunications sector. And this bill is about ensuring that we continue to see investment in this sector with a clear well-thought-through regulatory framework. Just in terms of—before I wrap up—some of the amendments made during the select committee stage I think the point that I would draw attention to was I suppose the more controversial element or the point of greatest debate. It was around Chorus' activities in terms of getting into retail activities. There had been restrictions on Chorus' involvement in retail activities. The bill which we introduced in the previous Parliament would have removed two of those restrictions—on Chorus providing sophisticated wholesale services known as above - layer 2 services and I'm not going to go into the details of all that but also restrictions on Chorus linking its wholesale service imports together to provide an end-to-end service which resembles a retail product. After a lot of consideration and a lot of feedback backwards and forwards across many submitters the committee on balance considered that actually the potential benefits in terms of innovation and efficiency which is what we were looking for were actually outweighed by potential disadvantages from changing Chorus' commercial incentives. So we have recommended retaining the existing line of business restrictions but also giving the Commerce Commission the ability to provide exemptions for particular services on a case by case basis. So that's obviously one of the detailed changes that have come through the select committee process. But on balance this National Party continues to support this bill and we think it will actually continue to create what we think—to get that balance of incentives right so that there is ongoing investment in the network providers to continue to be encouraged while consumers are protected. I finish by just making that point: please Government don't underestimate the importance of having a strong stable and predictable regulatory framework and don't fall into the habit of doing decisions—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. Your time has expired."