Tisch Lindsay: Telecommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) Radiocommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Tisch Lindsay: Telecommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) Radiocommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Volume:634;Page:6113] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 National supports the splitting of the Communications Legislation Bill in this third reading into the Telecommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) and the Radiocommunications Amendment Bill (No 2). We have had some doubts and we have expressed some views about the legislation during the Committee stage. We are now happy to support the legislation but with some reservations which I will just highlight. 
There are two main objectives in splitting the legislation into two bills. The first bill amends the Telecommunications Act of 2001 by extending by 2 years—to December 2008—the regulation of 10 of the 13 telecommunications services that were originally regulated under that Act. I will come back to that matter and spend some time specifically on that point. The second bill amends the Radiocommunications Act of 1989 by updating the management of radio spectrum. Radio spectrum management rights run for 20 years and the legislation allows the aggregation of rights in order to simplify the management process. In addition adverse impacts of inappropriate receivers such as the band expanders used in imported Japanese cars are not to be considered when distributing radio spectrum as this could limit the full utilisation of available spectrum. An option of arbitration is introduced for resolving disputes between radio broadcasters. 
We support this legislation although it is mainly of a technical nature. Under the 2001 Act telecommunications companies can apply to the Commerce Commission for determination on the terms and prices of access to specific services. In 2001 Labour made it very clear that it was setting up a 5-year time frame for the 13 designated services to be investigated by the Commerce Commission. At that time the then Minister of Communications Paul Swain proclaimed that the introduction of the legislation would establish a: “framework for ensuring that the telecommunications industry can move forward in an orderly way.” Well here we are with this legislation having to ask that that 5 years be extended out for another 2 years because after 5 years only three of the 13 designated services have been investigated. Now the Government is asking for another 2 years to be able to investigate the other 10 services. It is a sad reality of the Government. Although it proclaimed earlier that it was important we move forward it is now asking for an extension of time from 5 years to 7 years because it has been able to deal with only three services. 
Although submitters support the extension—because they have come to accept the delays the slippage and the missing time frames—I doubt that any business in a competitive environment actually has the luxury of time to be able to extend something for 2 years without having to pay a penalty for that. Otherwise it would find itself in a competitive environment and possibly going out of business. This Labour Government does not understand what makes the world go round. It does not understand this it has no appreciation of it and it has no business acumen at all. It thinks it is all very fine to extend out this period by 2 years. We are happy to support that—reluctantly as Pansy Wong identified in her speech—but we certainly have those concerns. 
In completing this short piece for National I say that we will be supporting— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Short but excellent. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: My colleague Maurice Williamson is an expert in telecommunications and he has allowed me as a layman to speak on the legislation. If we can understand these things in layman’s terms then we find they actually have more clarity. It is a great honour to take Maurice Williamson’s 10-minute slot to be able to say that we will support this legislation.