Adams Amy: Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Adams Amy: Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19471] 
AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) 
: 
 I will start off my contribution in this Committee stage of the Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill by acknowledging and congratulating the Minister for Communications and Information Technology on the work he has done in putting together a package that will see New Zealanders get access to world-leading ultra-fast broadband. It will see 75 percent of New Zealanders get access to high-speed broadband it will see the vast bulk of the rest of New Zealand get access under the Rural Broadband Initiative rollout and it will make us one of the most connected countries in the world. That can only be good for economic growth jobs incomes and lifting the living standards of all New Zealanders. 
I find it amazing that the Labour Opposition will vote against putting ultra-fast broadband into the homes of New Zealanders. What has been interesting to me is that throughout this process the Labour Opposition has been looking for monsters under the bed. Labour has been looking for reasons to have a go at this bill because it knows that the bill is a successful initiative of this National-led Government and it wants to do what it can to have a go at it. 
Part 1 of the bill is about the telecommunications service obligation instruments and the new telecommunications development levy the way in which that is set up and the way in which it is funded. We are again continuing to hear from Labour members today desperate attempts to try to create issues where there are none because they cannot accept the fact that a National-led Government is delivering to this country the sort of economic growth and infrastructure that will allow for jobs incomes and living standards all to be raised. I think it is worth getting on record that this bill is a fundamental part of the economic growth plan for New Zealand and Minister Joyce should be congratulated on it. 
This first part as I said really talks to the way in which the telecommunications service obligations are set up and the way in which they are costed. It is a technical part of the law. As part of the Finance and Expenditure Committee which reviewed the bill I say that it certainly takes a while to properly understand some of these aspects particularly if one has not been overly involved with the telecommunications sector as was the situation for me. But the changes we are making to the way those service obligations and the service agreements under them are carried out—the way the compensation is costed and the way it is funded—are I think very sensible when one sits back and look at them. They ensure that the providers of those otherwise uneconomic telecommunication services are properly compensated but are not overcompensated. 
An important part of this is looking at the way the calculation is done to ensure that the net cost to those providers is the relevant cost because financial benefits would accrue from the provision of those services. Without the passage of this legislation there is a very real likelihood that telecommunications providers could in fact be overcompensated which obviously is something that we want to avoid. Part 1 is in large part focused on tidying up the way that those service obligations are administered on the way that compensation is calculated and as I said on setting up the telecommunications development levy to ensure that that compensation can be paid for as well as paying for the provision of various telecommunications infrastructure. 
The other point that I will touch on is the changes that have been made in relation to the liable revenue that that is assessed on. I think it is an important part in terms of ensuring that when the telecommunications development levy is being applied we look carefully at companies and ensure that we are catching only those large providers that gain a significant part of their revenue from the provision of telecommunication services. 
I think that the work the select committee did and the further refinements from the Minister for Communications and Information Technology in Supplementary Order Paper 247 are very sensible and pragmatic. They will result in an industry that has a far clearer more streamlined and ultimately more sensible way of assessing monitoring administering and funding those particular obligations. They are important obligations because they are the basis on which New Zealanders can be assured that they will have those fundamental telecommunications services provided without discrimination based on the part of the country that they live in. As I have said in previous contributions on this bill it is very important to me coming from a large rural electorate to ensure that our rural communities are looked after. That has always been a key priority for this Government. We do stand up for our rural communities unlike the Labour Opposition. We do ensure that rural communities have access to the same standard of infrastructure that their urban cousins enjoy. That is why I have been a very proud and ardent supporter of the Rural Broadband Initiative which we will certainly discuss in more detail as we progress through this bill.