Martin TraceyTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to support the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Bill to the select committee only.Before I begin my contribution Mr Deputy Speaker can I acknowledge you and your time in this House. There have been times when you have sat in the Chair and told me I am not funny. There have been times when you have sat in the Chair and told me that I am a bit shrill. But there have been other times—actually not in this Chamber—when particularly in this term you have poked your head in the door and said Don't let the … grind you down." and I appreciate that. You are a person whom New Zealand First appreciates and I am sure that my colleague Fletcher Tabuteau has made sure that you understand how much you have been valued by him and by our caucus this particular term.Can I also acknowledge Paul Foster-Bell who is being smart enough not to make his valedictory in this term of Parliament because he will return at some stage in the future. People may not know that you only get one chance at it so Mr Foster-Bell is putting some money on his future and I am prepared to take that bet Mr Foster-Bell. I believe you will be back. You have served this Parliament well in the time you have been here and I personally have found you a joy to interact with. So I wish you well for the future.Matt Doocey: What party is he coming back on?TRACEY MARTIN: Not you Mr Doocey—it is all right. Right we will get back on to the—you see I am trying not to be shrill. We will get back to the bill. As the explanatory note of the bill states the aim of this bill is to amend the Telecommunications Act 2001; to establish a stable and predictable regulatory framework for fibre fixed-line access services in New Zealand; to remove unnecessary copper fixed-line access service regulation; to streamline regulatory processes to enable a rapid response to any competition problems particularly in the mobile communications market; and to provide more regulatory oversight of retail service quality.I pick up on Ms Lee's contribution with regard to the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand and the long-awaited introduction of this bill. I pick up on Mr Wood's contribution. I believe—I am sure it is in the regulatory impact statement; yes actually it is in the explanatory note of the bill—that this review has been going on since 2012. So that is actually 5 years that this has been in process. And I pick up on another member of the Opposition's contribution—I think it Mr Nash who started us off who said that here we are the day before the last day of the 51st Parliament at the first reading.This bill will go through. It is interesting. I think it has unanimous support; I am not sure. Is the Green Party supporting this bill? I cannot remember—yes it is. So I am pretty sure that we have unanimous support for this piece of legislation at least through to the select committee. So one wonders why it took this long to get here and why the day before the last day we are now having a discussion about it.The reason why New Zealand First is a little hesitant to give it its full support—we will support it to the select committee—is this bit under the heading "Deregulation of certain copper fixed line access services" in the departmental disclosure statement. The bill provides in relation to copper fixed-line access services—which is Chorus's unbundling bitstream access and Chorus's unbundled copper low frequency service—that from 2020: "In areas where fibre is available Chorus will no longer be required to supply copper fixed line access services or"—and this is the important bit—"meet the obligations specified in TSO instruments."What are the telecommunications service obligations (TSO) instruments? There are two TSO deeds right now inside the Telecommunications Act. One is a telecommunications relay service (TRS) for the hearing-impaired which is between the Crown and Sprint International. That is called the TRS. Then there is the local residential telephone services (LRTS) deed which is between the Crown Telecom and Chorus and that is called the LRTS.I think Mr Wood started to touch on it. When Telecom was privatised in 1990 the Kiwi share obligation placed a number of requirements on Telecom in respect of the local telephone services. In December 2001 these requirements were suspended in an enhanced form and became the TSOs. Chorus will no longer have to meet the obligations in this requirement. So the TSO was the TSO for the local residential telephone service. The local service TSO is primarily a consumer protection mechanism that ensures the availability and affordability of basic telecommunications services in New Zealand.You might say "Well it is covered somewhere else in this piece of legislation."—you might say that. The local service TSO ensures that residential local telephone services are available to residential customers throughout New Zealand and are available in rural areas at a price and quality—and quality—comparable to the local service available in the urban areas. The word "quality" is important and again I think we might find—but we want to hear from submitters—that this may end up being covered in another clause.But the TSO deed further required Telecom to offer residential customers the option of toll-free calling. We have not got toll-free calling in Auckland at the moment. Te Hana Wellsford and Warkworth have to dial 09—it is not toll-free—to call somebody in Devonport or Tāmaki. And we are changing—we are removing—Chorus's requirement for an obligation here under these TSOs. Will this be one of those obligations that are removed? Why has somebody not been enforcing it now for the city of Auckland?The second thing they have to do is limit the price rises in the standard residential line rental to no more than the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumers Price Index (CPI). I think there is conversation inside the piece of legislation around making sure that the basic package has no price rises other than the CPI.But the third is to enable residential customers to make emergency 111 calls. I want to go back: "Chorus will no longer be required"—this is once it does away with the copper fixed line—"to supply copper fixed line access services or meet the obligations specified in TSO instruments." Which obligation is really really important—which obligation? I know that we get calls all the time from some of our older citizens who are concerned about this switch. You could say that they just need to move with the times and that is fine. But we need to be able to assure all our citizens that they will be able to make a call in an emergency whether the power is on or off. In lots of emergencies the power tends to go out.The other bit that we have in the departmental disclosure statement is that the bill provides consumer protection measures for consumers of copper fixed-line access services if Chorus seeks to stop supplying copper network services. It says: "Before Chorus is permitted to stop supplying a copper service comparable alternative fibre services must be available at similar prices with similar functionality and certain processes must be followed to reduce transitional risks."It will take a little bit to convince us and those in the Far North—those who have been living on the copper wire up in the Far North where the copper upgrades have not taken place. More and more connections have continued to be sold so that what was originally a workable speed even on copper has now actually faded out to something that is less than dial-up."