O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch as I begin taking a call on this Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Bill can I take a moment—because I suspect this will be my last speech in the House—to acknowledge you as Assistant Speaker and the retiring MP for Waikato for the service that you have given to this country. I am not sure seeing as you have given your valedictory speech whether you are now able to actually stop me speaking. It is a bit of a conundrum. Are you allowed to speak—who knows?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I still have all the powers.SIMON O'CONNOR: Ha ha! Can I also acknowledge as well—I am not going to go through all the members—my good friend and colleague Paul Foster-Bell who is sitting next to me and while he has not given his valedictory speech he is leaving this House after many years of service. Paul first and foremost as a mate you will be missed from this House so thank you.Modern telecommunications have become quite a norm for us. I would not go as far as the previous speaker Gareth Hughes did—to suggest that it is now a human right. Those in the House will not be surprised that I take a particularly philosophical view of what are and are not human rights and reject pretty strongly what are human wants masquerading as rights. I just want to put paid to the idea that somehow now the internet is a human right by indicating that while in New Zealand we want to have it and it is a good thing I think it would be very difficult to go into say sub-Saharan Africa and explain to people there that the need for housing or the right to water and clothing is now equivalent to having the internet. I think certain members who propagate that idea would be laughed off a certain piece of land.I think I would also want to point out that actually there are some remarkably good projects out there in the telecommunications field in those let us say poorer or less fortunate communities. It was mentioned by the previous speaker who sat down that somehow there is a complete absence but actually I think of an area in my own electorate in Tāmaki—Glen Innes—where a most amazing project called the Manaiakalani Project is in play. In the long and the short within the telecommunications framework—and there are two elements to it—young children get their own digital devices. They get free internet access. Really importantly they get free internet access in their schools—and there are 11 of them in my electorate at the moment—and free internet access at home for them and their families. Telecommunications—yes it is run by big companies and it is supported by Government but it is also run and supported by individual groups families and communities.Can I take this chance as we read this new amendment bill a first time to acknowledge all those behind the Manaiakalani Project. There are particular individuals but a number of companies have been mentioned tonight. Actually Spark and Vector—two big companies that probably get decried at some level by opposition groups—are funding millions of dollars into providing telecommunications access to some of the most disadvantaged in our communities and I think that is just tremendous.This bill is ultimately about creating a system that is fit for purpose for our modern telecommunications. I know my stepson Ethan is watching at home and he is probably the greatest advocate for ultra-fast or fibre broadband in the country. In fact I think one of the best things I have done other than marrying his mother was to make sure we got—and she is probably watching too; I will just put that on record—fibre connected to our home. What an enormous difference that has made not only to our family and I think to your sanity Ethan and mine but actually to all those New Zealanders who are coming on board. We have a really proud record as a Government of rolling out this ultra-fast broadband.I know that within my constituency there are still areas demanding access to it. Unfortunately we cannot install it all at the same time. What we are seeing now and what this bill begins to address is that we are moving to an ultra-fast broadband or a fibre set of communications and moving away from copper technologies. This bill addresses well four aspects but two of them are of this.Hon Christopher Finlayson: That child should be studying.SIMON O'CONNOR: I am just hearing from my side one of my colleagues suggesting that Ethan should be busy studying at the moment and not on the internet. I just have to inform the honourable member—Joanne Hayes: Latin.SIMON O'CONNOR: He could be studying Latin. I have tried to teach him Greek as well but that is actually not going so well either. But you know they can use the internet for study now. They can—it is great.The first thing that this bill is looking to do is introduce a new utility regulation framework. Basically and the long and the short of it is we are wanting to make sure that ultra-fast broadband providers do not make excess profits. It will surprise no one in the House—and I am very much a National Party person—that I have no problem with groups making profits. In fact—Hon Member: Quite right.SIMON O'CONNOR: —it is a normal and as my colleague says healthy and quite right dynamic. But we are not into excess profits. The benefit of profits as I have already indicated allows the likes of the Vectors and the Sparks to actually support their communities and give back but excess profits do not help anyone. So we are putting in a new fixed-line regulatory framework and Chorus in particular will be subject to a revenue cap to provide certain anchor services.I am not mixing up my brands here when I talk about Chorus and anchor but with anchor services we are talking about the likes of very basic broadband capabilities and voice capabilities. We think back to the pre-broadband era or even to dial-up when the basic for anchor services was a copper phone line. Once we ended up with the likes of dial-up VDSL and ADSL those had become basic services. So we are now saying that actually the likes of fibre and a voice connection—probably through Voice over Internet Protocol—are going to be a key and as I say an anchor service. We are hoping that in doing so we will provide some price stability for consumers and obviously retail service providers as well. So there will be a market benefit there.One of the elements of the bill is around speed too which will be demanding a minimum—sorry not a maximum; I had better be very clear about that—of about 100 megabits a second upload. No I am actually mixing everything up all of a sudden. I am going to get told off by Ethan back home. It will be a 100 megabit download and a 20 megabit upload. That is a good start and a lot more is possible. I think fundamentally what people should understand as well is that fibre can work at a lot greater speeds than that but we are saying that is an absolute minimum.We are also looking through this bill to deregulate the copper services. It is quite natural that those investing in ultra-fast broadband or fibre are going to be moving out of the copper sector so it does not make a lot of sense that any monopolistic dynamics continue. So there has to be withdrawal there allowing others if they choose to to come into that market. We are wanting to make sure though—and the bill is very cautious around this but I think the select committee will take a bit of time on it—that the copper owner does not withdraw too early. It is going to be quite important—Paul Foster-Bell: No premature withdrawal.SIMON O'CONNOR: —yes—that it is not going to be too early. It is going to be quite important that the services required of the copper network—or what rather consumers expect of their copper network—remain. Put another way we will have to make sure that the fibre services are providing the same if not better service to those communities before copper services are withdrawn.We are also looking to streamline the process for the regulation of services. I am not going to go into all those details. They get a little bit complex and I think they are better handled actually within the select committee. But the final side—the fourth element of what we are doing—is basically around greater consumer protections. In drawing this as No. 4 I do not think it actually takes away from the other three being important as well. As I mentioned earlier it is almost like a bit of a see-saw. We are making sure that as the fibre services come in copper declines or is used differently. That is for the benefit of the consumer as too is putting some revenue caps around fibre providers to make sure that consumers get a good deal. But the bill itself is seeking to enhance consumer protection.I think that if you were to ask many people perhaps even in this House what their experience has been of telecommunications services it would not always be positive. I want to be very clear up front that this Government has put an enormous amount of taxpayers' money into improving the services. We still have quite a way to go. I think of various mobile black spots. I think of even just the quality of the copper line. I could always tell when I was calling home or I was getting complaints from home about internet services pre-fibre—I could work out the weather in Auckland was raining. The long and the short is that if it is raining the copper network begins to get compromised. So we are very keen to see how we can actually improve those services and increase people's—I don't know—expectations but I also think there is an element of responsiveness.The bill aims in this fourth section to lift consumer service quality across the sector and improve responsiveness to consumer needs. I think that is at the heart of this bill. I think it is going to be quite a substantial piece of work in the 52nd Parliament particularly for those on the select committee. Going through the bill over the recent days this is a substantial piece of work but I commend it to the House.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I call Michael Wood.Hon Ruth Dyson: Oh this will be good.