Wong Pansy: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5597] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman. It is very kind of you. My National colleagues continue to be disappointed that despite our hard work we have not heard any noise from the Labour benches. Those members have not even bothered to speak. I think they are embarrassed. They are ashamed that they have had to come cap in hand to ask for an extension. They have been duped; they have been misled by their own Minister. In 2001 the Hon Paul Swain convinced his Labour colleagues that he would sort it out that in 5 years’ time all those 13 designated services would have been sorted out by the Commerce Commission. 
But I would like to introduce another perspective into Part 1. It seems to me that lots of the public have shown some concern about the inconsistency. I would use the words “double standard”. When the Labour Government could not execute a task to meet that deadline what did it do? It has come back into the Chamber simply to ask for an extension. I think that for anybody—a business or an individual out there—who was dealing with the Commerce Commission if the commission set down a time line for them to make a submission it would be 2 weeks or 3 weeks. I doubt very much whether they would get the same tolerance if they were to continue asking for the extensive goodwill of pushing that time line out. It seems to me that it is one law for the Government but then when it comes to the public and business they never enjoy the same type of latitude. 
I want to compliment my hard-working colleague Colin King. In the few short hours he had he absolutely showed up the Labour members because they have not bothered to take even a simple call. Colin King has gone around and identified that there was only one submission made by TelstraClear. That was the only company that made a submission on Part 1 which pointed out the obvious and asked: “Why in the first instance was 5 years set down as the original time line?”. It said that that competition actually takes a while to happen. So firstly TelstraClear questioned whether the original time line in itself was realistic. 
It further pointed out that its observation of the previous commission investigation and determination was that the timetable always slipped. Not only did the timetable slip but it slipped in a very significant way. National reluctantly will support the bill because we do not want to cause any more uncertainty for the people out there but we want to put on record that we totally agree with TelstraClear’s observation that the way the Government has not been able to meet its timetable is incredible. That timetable was not missed by just an inch. Actually just now my diligent hard-working and articulate colleague Phil Heatley said that the Government moved at a snail’s pace. [ 
Interruption 
] Tortoise? I say that is an insult to a tortoise! 
 This Labour Government has certainly demonstrated to the public that it knows how to miss timelines but it has never made allowances for businesses to adhere to the same standard. It never gives businesses the same latitude it gives itself when it comes to rushing through legislation and saying the commencement date is in 2 months’ time. It seems to think businesses exist to serve the Labour Government’s whim whenever it wants to pass legislation. So if there are compliance costs Labour members say: “Oh well what compliance costs? It is a privilege for a business to operate.” If the Government wants to commence a time line it simply names a day and asks why the business cannot comply.