Shearer DavidDAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): The Labour Party is pleased to support this bill basically because it makes good common sense. We have an ultra-fast broadband (UFB) roll-out that needs to access private property. There are obviously some complications that occur when that is attempted in many cases. What this bill is aiming to do is to try to iron out some of those complications by which there could be delays in getting the ultra-fast broadband from the street if you like into the homes. Right at the moment what happens is that the network operators have the consent of the legal owners of the property through which they run the fibre connection but this could be complicated if the end-user is not the sole owner of the property—for example if you have got a unit title some sort of company share arrangement perhaps or Māori freehold land or maybe if there is an easement. There is a whole range of different complications that can create problems in getting the connection through to the owner who wants the ultra-fast broadband. As a result of that this legislation breaks the installations effectively into two different categories. Category 1 installations are those installations that have no lasting impact on properties. They might disturb the grass or soft surfaces or something like that—perhaps a narrow trench through a garden or whatever—but they create no real physical problems other than that. That is what the legislation calls category 1". For those installations a statutory right will be provided for the network operator to get on and install UFB after providing 5 days' notice. So the notice time is pretty minimal. People get 5 days' notice in terms of the fact that this is going to go through the area. That is estimated to cover around about 37 percent of the connections that are made with the UFB roll-out.Category 2 installations are a little more complicated. They have more of a lasting impact on property such as drilling a cable underground leaving potholes having to cut through say concrete or having to access a metre every 10 metres or so. For these installations neighbours will be provided with basically a high-level design of what is going to happen and they get 15 days to object on a limited number of grounds. If they do not object then they are deemed to have consented. So it effectively eliminates a lot of the time delays and problems that are being created at the moment. As the Minister for Communications said a number of cases right now have been waiting over 50 days to be connected because of disputes between different parties that the ultra-fast broadband consent has to go through.It is estimated that category 2 that more difficult installation is going to be about 51 percent of all installations. The balance—the 12 percent of installations left from the 37 percent in category 1 and 51 percent in category 2—is more invasive than even those two categories and will be subject to the existing requirement where all parties have to provide their consent. So in effect it will mean either bigger earthworks or bigger concrete works or whatever.There are some complications obviously as well around apartment blocks where there are multiple dwellings and owners and the law will clarify this as well so that once a single-unit owner has placed an order for UFB the network operator will have an automatic right to the common areas of that property to best determine the right way or the most appropriate way to install UFB. It means that an apartment owner who wants UFB will not be stymied from getting it by a whole lot of other people in that apartment block. We are looking forward to hearing what is going to happen in the select committee. I am sure there will be submissions on this and I am sure there will be other issues that perhaps we have not been able to consider or think about in the course of this first reading. Nevertheless those issues can come forward at the select committee. We can hear those and we can tweak and adjust hopefully if the Hon Amy Adams will allow us to be able to do that in the interests of good natural justice and in order that we are able to get the best bill and the best law that will be able to be rolled out. As I say the Labour Party is pleased to support this. We notice that ultra-fast broadband is going out at a reasonable rate. There were about 24000 requests for UFB in April and 16000 connections. You do the maths on that and somehow along the line 8000 people requested it but did not get it. What I would assume that means is that we are running a little behind what people would want but nevertheless it is being rolled out at a reasonable pace. I have to say I was one of those people in April who made that request and actually got their UFB connected so who am I to complain? However I do note that with the excitement around our UFB roll-out we should remember that there are a number of people in our society who are not even connected to the internet let alone able to connect to UFB. For example Peeni Henare was just telling me that 68 percent of Māori do not have access to the internet. That is a lot of Māori people who are not connected to the internet compared with 86 percent connected the average across New Zealand. The biggest non-connections are in the areas where there is the greatest level of deprivation which is perhaps in Northland and Gisborne. Perhaps in some of the rural areas it is more difficult but nevertheless it puts these people at an extraordinary disadvantage. At a time when we are rolling out various computing devices—iPads etc.—in schools the fact that kids in those areas in those groups are unable to go home and do their homework using the internet as so many people across New Zealand are so accustomed to doing now puts them at a distinct disadvantage. It really does show up what people are calling the digital divide. Likewise in Auckland: 70 percent of Māori in Auckland have access to the internet but that means 30 percent do not. That is a very significant number of people.Not only that if you look at Māori in terms of their connections if you like to the industry again Mr Henare was telling me that only 1 percent of Māori are seeking study in the information and technology area. I think that is a real shame because obviously this is an area that is growing. Although we can get very excited about the fact that we are having ultra-fast broadband rolled out at the pace that the Minister has laid out we do need to think very very seriously about those people who are being missed those people who do not have the access those people who are likely to fall even further behind as a result of not being able to be connected to something that we have come to see almost as a right as in water or electricity or whatever. We need to make sure that those people are connected and that we have some means of being able to roll that out in a much more universal way. Thank you."