Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Chairperson. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this Committee stage debate of the Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I would like to commend the Commerce Committee. It seems that there was a lot of collaboration and a lot of brainstorming about what the solutions could be to the issues at hand. I particularly want to highlight that when additional amendments were identified the select committee actually engaged in a second round of consultation with the public to make sure that it got this bill right. I think it has got it right.I just want to talk about a few things that have now come to my mind in terms of the relevance of this legislation to not only my community but other communities around New Zealand. For me it was about understanding what the Government's aspiration was. The Government originally had a goal of 75 percent coverage for ultra-fast broadband by 2019. It has amended that goal—now it wants to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to at least 80 percent of New Zealanders by 2022. So that got me thinking about why the Government would want to commit over $210 million to this particular priority it has identified.The benefits to business are actually about—and I have just had a look at some of them—faster downloads which are apparently three times faster; faster uploads which are apparently 10 times faster; increased reliability; improved information and data flow; high-quality video conferencing; cost-effective access; and lower costs by utilising internet-calling services. Overall this is about enhancing the environment for businesses. That is fantastic. Then from a personal or home perspective it was also about allowing people to work from home so they do not have to go into work—they can actually work from home. There were the same issues—consistent online video and TV services and lower-cost telephone and internet-calling services. The net benefit to New Zealanders and to New Zealand is huge.I want to acknowledge what this bill is attempting to do. From my read of it we have decided that everybody should have access to what I call a platform technology" which is ultra-fast broadband. I think there is collaboration across the House because all of us want access to that technology. In fact in my own home situation it took me over a year working with my six other shared-driveway homeowners to actually have access to ultra-fast broadband. It took a long time it took a lot of collaboration and it took a lot of working with Parliamentary Service and Chorus. So I have experienced the relevance of this legislation in my life.I am hoping that through the authorisation of land access instances where the consent of more than one party is required will be addressed in this bill so that if people want to connect they are not then dependent on others who may not want to connect or may not want to connect at that point in time. That has then kind of led me to think about having access to this platform technology—being able to utilise it. I guess this is my challenge to the Government in terms of providing access because the assumption is that people have the devices either at home or at work or at school to be able to use the technology.One of the really interesting things that I have found is that in May 2016 the New Zealand Council for Educational Research produced a report and it was actually about schools' access to devices that enable them to use this platform technology. If you are from a low-decile school the access is through devices that the school provides and they are shared but if you come from a high-decile school—66 percent of decile 9 and 10 schools have what they call "bring your own device" (BYOD) policies. It is actually an expectation of the school given they have access to the technology through the Network for Learning which provides State-funded broadband to 2500 schools.The Government is really committed to this technology which is why it has contracted Network for Learning to provide this technology at schools. But I am bringing this up as an issue because I think it is an issue for the future. If you are at a decile 9 or 10 school—66 percent of those schools have these "bring your own device" policies. That then assumes that the parents are going to be able to provide these devices to their kids. Why? Well the "why" I have outlined. It is all those benefits about access to information data—I guess interfacing with data especially for our young people when they are doing research projects—and actually having the knowledge to engage with the world. That then provides them with better learning environments and hopefully better learning outcomes.But one of the interesting things I noted that has just happened is that Katrina Casey who works for the Ministry of Education has said that these BYOD policies actually break our Education Act because our Education Act says that education should be free. If some of the schools are wanting to have these BYOD policies and the Ministry of Education is saying "Well you can't because education is supposed to be free and requiring parents to provide these devices to their kids breaks the Education Act." then I guess that is my wero or my challenge back to the Government because I think it is incumbent on all of us then to provide access to these devices to all of our children.I know at Manurewa High School—it is a decile 1c school and some would say that you know our community does not have the capability to buy these devices. Well actually our school has prioritised that our children will have access to these devices because in the world we live in now if our children cannot access these devices and they do not have the full range of devices available to them within an education context then they will never fulfil their potential and they will not be fit for purpose in this modern world. So my challenge now back to the Government is if we are requiring schools to drop their BYOD policies because education is free in New Zealand then it must provide those devices to all of our kids so they can actually benefit from what is a priority not only for the Government but I think for all political parties across the House. And I bring it up in this debate because it seems that we have come from a situation where in 2001 we completely overhauled this telecommunications area.This is about providing efficient and effective regulation of telecommunications and so if we are going to create an environment where we spend over $210 million to create a technology platform then we actually have an obligation I believe based on that investment to ensure that every child in this country has access to the devices that are going to enable them to utilise ultra-fast broadband. It will be interesting to hear what the Minister thinks about that. It is not a component of this bill but I think given the Ministry of Education's position the Government does need to respond to this. The reason that Manurewa High School—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): No not now.LOUISA WALL: —decided to have a BYOD—[Interruption]—am I getting too; sorry—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Yes you are.LOUISA WALL: —policy was that as I said before it recognised how important ultra-fast broadband is. In fact my three high schools—Manurewa High School James Cook High School and Alfriston College—want to link their access to State-funded broadband together so that my whole community can have free Wi-Fi because they want the kids to not only be able to use their devices at school where they can connect; they want them to use these devices at home.So I think given the intention of this bill given the work that the select committee has done given that this seems to be an area that across the Committee we all recognise is incredibly important to the future of our country—because this is about regional economic development. This is about equality of opportunity for all of our children. No matter where you live and no matter which school you go to if your school is able to connect and you are able to engage in and with the world through either having a device at school or a device that you own yourself I think that we are going to get better learning outcomes for our children. From my perspective as a member of the House and also as a member who was not on the Commerce Committee I think this is an incredibly important piece of legislation. So more than standing in support of it I am actually opening us up to ask what is the next phase in the evolution of providing this platform technology to all New Zealanders and from my perspective specifically to young people who through this technology can achieve wonderful things. Thank you."