Wong Pansy: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5591] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 Part 1 of the Communications Legislation Bill is in fact a very short-focused part. It states that it will extend the 5-year time line that the Government set up in 2001 to enable 12 communications services to be so-called designated—that is services are to be regulated by the Commerce Commission. But let us reflect on that because in 2001 when the Government assigned those 12 designated services the Minister of Commerce at that stage was the Hon Paul Swain. He actually said no ifs no buts that in 5 years’ time those 12 designated services or issues related to that would have been dealt with but today we are standing here 5 years later extending 10 out of the 12 designated services. 
Well I invite the Minister in the chair David Parker—I do not know how many Ministers there have been since but there is now another Minister in the chair—to take a call and explain to the public why after 5 long years we are here debating again the extension of 10 out of the 12 designated services. What happened in those 5 years? What happened to the certainty and the orderly market that was promised by the Hon Paul Swain? That was why National supported this measure 5 years ago. We were told that in 5 years’ time all the issues relating to those 12 designated services would be sorted out. 
National reluctantly will support this legislation because we do not want to cause further uncertainty by denying the sector this legislation. But I think that the Hon David Parker still owes it to the public to take a call to explain why with the passage of 5 long years we are here tonight in this Chamber debating the extension of time. What confidence do we have that this issue will be sorted out once the time period has been extended? Well in fact yesterday the Commerce Commission announced further that even though the commissioner has a lot on his plate in sorting out the telecommunications industry he has decided he will take on another investigation—into the mobile phone market. 
So while we are debating this legislation one cannot help thinking how many times we will be summoned back into the House and to the select committee to continue to do a patch-up job because the Government in the first instance obviously has not got it right. That has already been well demonstrated in the bundling and unbundling issue which has been a flip-flop and a U-turn all along the way. 
So I ask whether the Minister in the chair could take a call and give the public some reassurance that with the cooperation of the National Party we will not be back in the House again having to support further time extensions just because this Government is incompetent in terms of charting a way forward for the telecommunications sector. In effect we have seen very little progress in the last 5 years on giving certainty for the operators in the telecommunications sector. 
I do not think that the Minister should just sit there waiting for us to ask the question and not give the public the benefit of knowing that cooperation on this legislation will lead to some real commitment on the part of the Government to make sure that an extension will not be further required. In fact among all the submissions we had only one—I think it was from TelstraClear—that supported the bill.