Curran Clare: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Curran Clare: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5637] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 The Minister for Communications and Information Technology Steven Joyce does not strike me as a ditherer but I am starting to change my mind. The National Government was elected more than 9 months ago and an essential component of National’s campaign strategy was its $1.5 billion commitment to roll out ultra-fast broadband to 75 percent of New Zealand homes within 10 years. That was National’s big-ticket item its big campaign pledge. The first thing the new Government did was to axe the existing broadband programme introduced by the previous Labour Government which was called the Broadband Investment Fund and had dozens of regional projects poised to roll out and had widespread support in the industry. 
In 2008 the previous Labour Government committed to spend $500 million in broadband investments over 5 years. The targets were high-speed open access urban fibre networks improved rural connectivity and improved international links. But the new Government axed it and there was a vacuum in the industry. It took this Government until the end of March to release its investment proposal for consultation the Broadband Investment Initiative. Since then there has been nothing. The submissions closing date at the end of June came and went and what did the Minister do? He said he needed more time to think about it. After 2 more months he is still thinking about it. We are now approaching the end of August and there is no indication of how and when this Government will start rolling out broadband to 75 percent of the population. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: Or if they will. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: Or whether it will. But there are some things that we do know. We already know that this Government cannot deliver broadband into people’s homes despite saying that it could. Maybe it can deliver broadband to their streets. It will cost hundreds of dollars per household maybe even thousands to connect from their streets to their houses and the Government does not seem to have an answer on how that will be achieved. What will be the incentive for households to pay that price or for companies to bear the cost so they can sign people up to their products? It is also very unlikely the Government will be able to deliver to 75 percent of the population through a $1.5 billion investment especially within 10 years given that it has wasted nearly a year working out what direction to take. 
Another thing we know is that a quarter of New Zealand’s population living in rural areas is not included in the Government’s ultra-fast broadband scheme creating what is essentially a digital divide between urban and rural communities. The Government has not announced any plans for a separate rural broadband strategy. National has set aside $48 million for rural broadband but that has been described as what it is a “drop in the bucket”. In relative terms with urban areas it should be $500 million. 
The previous Labour Government on the other hand had a comprehensive rural broadband strategy that it had planned to build upon—a commitment of $75 million for rural projects aimed at extending the reach of people living in remoter areas of New Zealand. It was about providing new and improved broadband connections to communities businesses and users in the health education and wider Government sectors in rural areas. 
Another thing we know is that there has been a lot of uncertainty and concern in the communications sector about National not announcing its plan. Every stakeholder I talk to cannot understand why it is taking so long for this Government to make up its mind which leads one to speculate why. Is there an internal disagreement within the National Cabinet and caucus as to which direction to take? Is there some sort of heavy pressure being applied to go in one direction and not the other not for reasons of good policy but for other reasons? Or is the Minister a ditherer? 
Let us look at the choices. As the Minister has acknowledged the choice appears to lie between a Telecom-led unitary roll-out and a growing coalition of electricity lines companies and independent fibre operators called the Regional Fibre Group. The regional approach is much closer to the direction that was taken by the previous Labour Government using the vast networks and experience of lines companies to build regional networks that have a common set of standards. The Telecom-led model would on paper take fibre further than the Government originally proposed but questions remain over Telecom’s incentive to duplicate its existing copper network plus a unitary model raises issues of stifling competition in the sector. We have to ask ourselves what could be holding these things up. Is it a choice between deals done between mates or is it something that makes good sense? Or perhaps the Minister is grappling with how to make the new level of bureaucracy the Crown Fibre Investment Company work and how to get a return on the Government investment at a time of recession. 
On another matter there is no doubt that a $1.5 billion investment in our broadband infrastructure is substantial. If it ends up being a $3 billion investment with a one-for-one contribution by the private sector then well and good but that is a lot of broadband fibre to lay out and it does not get laid out by itself. It requires a skilled workforce to lay it. A problem is occurring right now under the Minister’s nose which he seems oblivious to. Right now the country’s biggest telecommunications company Telecom is embroiled in an escalating drama with its own workforce of 900 service technicians and engineers in Northland and Auckland unionised and non-unionised who are fighting attempts to turn them into independent contractors. 
Essentially these employees will lose the protection provided to them as employees. They will be forced to buy their own equipment and transport vehicles pay for their own holiday and sick leave entitlements and accept all the other financial obligations associated with their own employment and that could cost them 50 to 66 percent of their income. Turned into independent contractors who do not make a fortune they will be at the mercy of the parent contractor and their remuneration will be based on how many jobs they can get through rather than the quality of the work that they do. 
These are real and genuine concerns and they will have a devastating effect on Telecom’s skilled workforce at a time when it is needed most. I have now received hundreds of contacts from employees in this industry who do not want to sign up as independent contractors but say they have no choice. They say they will not be able to make a living as a result and they feel forced to leave the industry. What sort of signal is that sending? 
I also hear from industry sources that it has been handled extremely poorly and that questions are being asked about what the Government will do about it. I will have a lot more to say on this issue in the coming days. 
Paul Quinn 
: We can’t wait! 
CLARE CURRAN 
: Good! I want to highlight one of the things that really concerns me. I thought that the Minister for Communications and Information Technology Steven Joyce was actually quite bright. But he does not seem to understand that in order to deliver an important infrastructure policy particularly one in the communications and technology industry we need a skilled workforce. When asked in this House 2 weeks ago about his commitment to a skilled workforce Mr Joyce was able to talk only about the importance of digital literacy across our population—that means more people with computers than skills to use them. 
Labour is absolutely committed to this but a skilled workforce is a lot more than that. When asked whether this Government is committed to establishing an industry training organisation in the information and communications technology industry or whether it is committed to use information and communications technology training in the Modern Apprenticeships scheme both of which were Labour policies the Minister replied no to both. Instead he has shown a cold indifference to a skilled information and technology workforce at a time when the Government needs a highly skilled workforce to deliver its $1.5 billion ultra-fast broadband to the streets of New Zealand. 
I tell the Minister that he ignores at his peril the development of this important industry. Every industry player knows there is already a skills shortage in this industry—I have heard the figure of 2000 skilled workers quoted from a number of sources. Every industry player knows there is a real disconnect occurring as this industry continues to develop between having an adequate pathway between schools and training institutions and ensuring enough New Zealand schoolchildren know about and are encouraged to move into the information and communications technology industry as a career path. I refer specifically to New Zealand schoolchildren because in the last few years we have had to fill the gaps with skilled workers from outside New Zealand. The previous Labour Government knew that; it had policy in place to address it and this Government does not seem to have a clue. It is clueless and dithering and that seems to be the key message from this speech. I believe this industry and these issues deserve better than that.