Jones Shane: Telecommunications Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Telecommunications Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4075] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Firstly as I rise to welcome this bill’s arrival at our Finance and Expenditure Committee I must say this. A me mihi ahau i te tuatahi ki taku hoa ki a Rawiri Cunliffe mona i maia ai ki te hari mau i tenei kaupapa ki te Whare. I first want to acknowledge my colleague David Cunliffe the Minister of Communications for having the courage to act in such a bold fashion in the construction of this proposal before the House. It is something that earlier Governments never had the courage to do. The fact that Maurice Williamson is absent today speaks volumes. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will withdraw and apologise. He cannot refer to members being absent. 
SHANE JONES 
: He did not take the call. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: No I am sorry. Perhaps the member did not understand. 
SHANE JONES 
: I withdraw and apologise. I note the presence of our whanaunga from Ngati Tuwharetoa the Hon Georgina te Heuheu. Anyway I will move on to more important matters. 
This is a strike for economic development. It is an example of how this Government is prepared to use the remedial powers of the State rather than to allow personalities to intone policy odes and elegies to a time that has gone by. We are no longer captured by a false belief that our economy can grow through an exclusive reliance on market mechanisms and we do not want to go back to a time when Governments feared to use the remedial and positive impacts of the State’s regulatory power-making facility. We are confident that with this proposition we will expedite and hopefully achieve the statistics that  
The Economist 
 magazine makes reference to—that there is within the next 7 to 8 years $13 billion of potential wealth that our economy can capture by enhancing broadening and deepening the role of information and communications technology through better broadband provision to our economy. 
Did members know that it is about 20 years since the first telephone company was privatised it is about 10 years since the World Wide Web emerged and it is about 5 years since the Telecom bubble burst? This area changes constantly. The important role that we must never avoid taking up is insisting upon and implementing the right regulatory framework. Indeed no less than the World Bank has identified that there is a key and overdue role for the State to play in ensuring that broadband and information and communications technology grow and drive efficiency within the economy. What does the World Bank say is needed in less-developed and OECD economies in order for them to grow? It says that open entry is needed. This legislation insists that there be far more open far fairer entry for other providers in the sector. Not only does this bill achieve this it is a statement and a move towards transparency through cost-based pricing. Costing models will provide a return on capital but the legislation will no longer provide refuge for unscrupulous costing models or provide a basis for barriers to be put in the way of competitors. In addition the bill talks about cost-based interconnection—something else that we are addressing. 
With regard to access to infrastructure recently I had the pleasure of going through Kaikohe and Dargaville where I met a number of women of a similar age to myself. They applauded the initiative that the Minister has brought to the House today. Why? The reason is they could see that it would enable them to pursue education that had been denied them because of the tyranny of distance. They are looking forward to the opportunity of second-chance education to advancing their qualifications and to growing their role in the local economy through a more efficient provision of information and communications technology. That sort of outcome is a key contributor to our economic transformation. 
Obviously the fifth thing that we are addressing and which is referred to in this World Bank report is access to radio spectrum—but let me continue. What has been the approach from the Opposition? I look forward to John Key leading the National Opposition members on our select committee in a constructive way. I hope to see them developing a regulatory framework that will send an undiluted message to all players in this sector that this Parliament governs for the public interest—not just for the shareholders. Yes the interests of shareholders have to be borne in mind but consumers need a voice as well. The question of what is in the public’s interest is the essential pith of what causes this Government to deliver wealth and outcomes that will benefit everyone. And that in my view is the key distinguishing feature in terms of what members of the Opposition say about this bill—admittedly in a confusing way—and what we have heard today from the Minister. 
What has been the approach taken by Telecom? Well it was very pleasing to hear the Minister speak quite admiringly of Telecom’s willingness to take it on the chin and to provide for the opportunities that we have for so long waited. Naturally the devil is in the detail and the officials no doubt will burn the midnight oil studying whether their proposal will deliver the goods. But we look forward to a positive approach from Telecom. Some of the antics of the last 5 to 10 years reminded me of the actions of businesses in the time of Muldoon. In that era a tremendous amount of effort and expense was incurred to enable firms to lobby the Government of the day to ensure that their legacy remained intact. This was a legacy of monopoly pricing and monopoly power. Fortunately we will see less of that from entities such as Telecom. I look forward to seeing what the new board is likely to do in terms of direction and what the executive will present to us. 
Perhaps the most important thing about this proposal at a very basic level is that it actually provides for competition. It makes the process simpler for people to ply their services sell their wares and enable consumers to exploit the full benefit of e-health e-business and e-commerce. Unless our economy—so distant from markets—is able to capture and enjoy a worldwide world-beating communications service we will not achieve what we deserve and want to hand on to future generations. This is why when our Prime Minister stated that economic transformation was going to be a defining theme she focused very quickly on this overdue area of reform. This reform is good for business. This reform is good for consumers. This reform is good for Aotearoa. I welcome the bill and look forward to seeing it at the select committee that I chair. Kia ora tatou.