Tremain Chris: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
Tremain Chris: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:6035] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the title of the Communications Legislation Bill and to thank the chairperson of the Commerce Committee Katherine Rich. It is interesting to look at the membership list of the committee and to see that young Charles Chauvel joined the committee on 3 August 2006. We are looking forward to Mr Chauvel taking a call and enlightening us with his knowledge of the Communications Legislation Bill. 
In speaking to the title I say that National supports the bill which deals with matters that are both urgent and necessary in the telecommunications sector. The bill is aimed at avoiding unintended consequences in both the telecommunications and the radio communications industries. 
There are a couple of key things about the bill that I will summarise. Firstly the bill prevents the unplanned expiry of regulations on a narrow range of communications services. We can see that Part 1 addresses that issue on the likes of local telephone number portability services cellular telephone number portability national roaming—which I will touch on a little later on—and co-location on cellular mobile transmission sites. The second thing the bill does is give legal certainty to allowing the full use of the radio spectrum despite some listeners choosing to use inappropriate radio receivers such as band expanders which I spoke on in an earlier speech. 
The Communications Legislation Bill is an omnibus bill; it amends two Acts—the Telecommunications Act 2001 and the Radiocommunications Act 1989. As the Hon David Cunliffe—“Lord Cunliffe”—said in his first reading speech the bill maintains a commercial environment of certainty and confidence for both telecommunications services and the use of the radio frequency spectrum. 
Speaking to the title I will deal with Part 1 in terms of the Telecommunications Act 2001. Members will recall that Part 1 was debated 2 weeks ago. Under the Telecommunications Act we see the issue of the expiry of a number of licences. The bill aims to extend by 2 years—to December 2008—the regulation of 10 services originally regulated under the 2001 Act and those are the services I referred to earlier that include the likes of local telephone number portability cellular telephone number portability and national roaming etc. As I said the regulation of those services is due to expire in December 2006 unless that regulation is extended by an Order in Council on the recommendation of the Minister following an investigation by the Commerce Commission. At the moment the Finance and Expenditure Committee is dealing with the likes of the local loop unbundling issue under the Telecommunications Act. It is very important that those regulated services are clarified and in good order. The necessary investigations by the Commerce Commission are under way right now but the final decision on those investigations will not be acted on until late December 2006. 
So the situation has arisen where we could extend the regulated period by a number of years under an Order in Council but there is a time frame that would not be able to be reached. As a result under this bill we have created legislation to allow it to happen earlier. That will allow certainty to telecommunication service providers and customers which they need in this industry. The industry requires big investment dollars and it is very important that investors from overseas know there is security of services going forward. The bill therefore extends the regulation of 10 services through to 2008. We have certainty of tenure in that regard—at least for 2 years. 
I would be interested to hear the Minister in the chair the Hon Steve Maharey clarify whether there will be an Order in Council to extend regulation beyond post-2008 and explain the Government’s plans. He could say whether the matter will be left in the hands of the new Government of the day which is likely to be a National Government. 
Part 2 deals largely with amendments to the Radiocommunications Act and they are mostly technical in nature. Once again they are critical for the efficient functioning of the regulatory environment for services that require use of the radio spectrum. Listeners will have heard much about the firming up of the regulatory environment in regard to the radio spectrum. We have talked in particular about the certification of licences and the ensuring of property rights around those licences. The present legislation provides for proposed new licences to be assessed against existing licences to ensure that the new use is technically compatible. The Act requires a certificate to be provided by a suitably qualified and approved radio engineer attesting to technical compatibility prior to registration on the public register. 
What does all that mean? Put simply it means that if we accommodate poor-quality receivers we can limit the spectrum available for new licences and lower the economic utilisation of the radio frequency spectrum as a whole. That was the point I made in referring to the issue that arose with two Christchurch radio stations where CanWest took Niu FM to court arguing that Niu FM had overtaken some of its frequency and it was unable to get its full listenership on board because listeners who had imported new Japanese radios were flicking between the two stations albeit not through CanWest’s fault. CanWest went to court to get a decision about whose fault it was. I quote from the decision by Justice Chisholm in which he stated that he would not uphold CanWest’s claim since it was “reasonable to assume that the certifying engineer at RSM might not have known about the problem.” 
This legislation sorts that out. It says that receivers that do not receive properly will not be taken into account. The legislation will clearly initiate licences going forward and provide security of property rights to radio spectrum owners. 
That summarises the two key parts of the bill relating to the Radiocommunications Act and the Telecommunications Act. The legislation deals with matters that are both urgent and necessary in the sector. It will avoid unintended consequences and ensure some security of tenure in the next couple of years. I say in summary that first it will prevent the unplanned expiry of regulation on a narrow range of communication services—and I have talked about co-location in that regard—and second it will give legal certainty to allow the full use of the radio spectrum despite some listeners choosing to use inappropriate radio receivers such as band expanders.