Hipkins Chris: Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hipkins Chris: Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I am very happy to take a call on the Telecommunications (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill which Labour will be supporting to select committee but with some reservations. I am a bit of a technology junkie myself. 
Hon Members 
: No! 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: I know members would never have guessed. I was surprised by Melissa Lee’s speech. I thought she was going to stand up and tell us that broadband would be good for Auckland because the criminals would not have to go through Mt Albert. They would be able to email each other across the Auckland isthmus rather than having to travel through Mt Albert. I was surprised to hear such a brief contribution from that member. It is probably symbolic of the campaign that she ran in Mt Albert. It was about on par with what she seems to be capable of in the House.  
We have heard very little from the Government about its broadband initiative which was National’s second major pledge at the last election. Broadband was going to revolutionise the New Zealand economy. It was going to be part of that great step change in the New Zealand economy that National promised New Zealanders at the last election. What did we hear from Steven Joyce? A speech of 3 minutes was all we got from the dark prince of New Zealand politics Steven Joyce. He could not come up with even 3 minutes on his own major policy initiative. He is the man who wants to talk about the roads of national significance but he could not even come up with 3 minutes— 
Brendon Burns 
: The “Holiday Highway”. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: The “Holiday Highway”—that is right. He could not come up with 3 minutes on his own broadband initiative.  
Instead we got the B-team or maybe even the C-team from National doing 90-second speeches each. That wonderful maestro of inspiration from New Plymouth Jonathan Young gave us his views on broadband for all of about 90 seconds. He is the short-term temporary member of Parliament for New Plymouth who is shortly to be replaced by the much more dynamic Andrew Little. Andrew Little would not struggle to find 10 minutes’ worth of things to say about broadband like Jonathan Young did. He would have something meaningful to contribute to this debate. The people of New Plymouth will be much better represented in this House after the next election when Andrew Little is their member of Parliament.  
This package of initiatives from the Government was National’s No. 2 pledge at the last election. It was to be the great big step change that would have New Zealand catching up with Australia. I look forward to Gerry Brownlee standing up in this House and telling us how this broadband package will help us to catch up with Australia. He seems to be struggling with that notion at the moment. Gerry Brownlee stood up and said that actually we have caught up with Australia and we have made huge progress under this Government. Despite all the statistics saying exactly the opposite Gerry Brownlee continues to bluster on and say that we have caught up with Australia. This is despite the fact that after 2 years the Government still has not made any progress on its No. 2 pledge the broadband initiative. We are still not catching up with Australia yet Gerry Brownlee seems to think that we are already doing that.  
John Key of course thinks that the cycleway will be the major initiative that catches New Zealand up with Australia. As people are biking along on their pushbikes accessing broadband on the laptops on their handlebars we will all be catching up with Australia and it will all be sweetness light and wonderfulness! That is what ambition for New Zealand is all about. It is about spending 2 years to finally bring a broadband initiative package to this Parliament despite its being National’s No. 2 election pledge.  
Why has it taken the Government so long? 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Because it’s incompetent. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: Because it is totally hopeless. It might as well have put Gerry Brownlee in charge of it. We would never have seen a broadband initiative had Gerry Brownlee been in charge of it. It would have gone the same way as mining in national parks. How did that other great step change in the New Zealand economy that the Government was going to make mining in our national parks work out for the Government? It was right up there with broadband and the cycleway which have all gone by the wayside. Catching up with Australia? We are still waiting to hear that plan to catch up with Australia. There is no evidence of it any time in the last little while.  
Coming back to the importance of broadband I say that it is exciting that New Zealanders are getting in behind broadband and that there is a demand for ultra-fast broadband in New Zealand. But one of the key things we have to think very carefully about is not just getting the broadband to the door or to the gate but actually making sure all New Zealanders have the opportunity to make the maximum possible use out of it. I think our education system plays a critical role in this. During the tenure of the previous Labour Government we placed a large emphasis on getting faster broadband Internet to the school gate. But the next part is equally critical which is making sure schools are cabled and adequately resourced with computing—and with staff professional development for example—so they can make sure the kids in the schools are making the best use of that broadband.  
It is all very well to promise as the Government is doing to provide ultra-fast broadband fibre to the home but if it is used only for downloading movies and so on will it lead to the step change in the New Zealand economy the Government is promising? It will not. It will make us all a little happier and we will be able to access our movies a little faster. But will that actually provide the economic transformation the Government purports to be advocating in putting forward this broadband package?  
A large part of that economic transformation will rest with education and technology plays a huge role in our education system. If we go back over the last 15 to 20 years we know that 20 years ago schools might have had a photocopier. That would have been their technological advance—a Gestetner machine. The cost of a photocopier or a Gestetner machine was not huge. Now schools are expected to have computer labs wireless networks laptops and a whole lot of other technology that parents demand students demand and teachers demand. My own personal view—and I am glad Trevor Mallard is not listening because he would probably not agree with me on this—is that we have not adequately resourced the schools to keep up with that major technology demand. Putting faster broadband connections into schools will not help them unless we actually give schools the resources to make the best possible use of that broadband facility. I do not think we have yet done that. The Government members have nothing to say about that; I am not surprised.  
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: I think you’ve beaten them into submission. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: I have beaten them into submission according to Mr Hodgson.  
One of the reasons broadband is very very important is that we are coming into a really exciting time of technology convergence which has come about a few years later than I envisaged 10 years ago it would. We are seeing television the Internet and a whole lot of mobile technology converging. I think for example of the iPad which many members of Parliament have recently been able to acquire. That device uses wireless technology but that wireless technology through the wireless network we have here at Parliament hooks back into a broadband Internet connection. When I go home I use my iPad on a wireless network but that wireless network hooks into a broadband Internet connection. I can tell members that the Telecom New Zealand broadband Internet connections in Upper Hutt are not particularly flash. It takes an awful lot longer for me to download stuff on to my new iPad at home than it would take to download it here in the parliamentary complex. It is all work-related I assure members; it is completely work-related.  
All of the new technology we are now gaining access to will rely on effective fast broadband Internet in order for us to make the most of it. We all have an interest in making sure this initiative is successful. That is one of the reasons Labour will support this particular bill which draws together a number of the Government’s key initiatives: the Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative the Rural Broadband Initiative and the telecommunication service obligations. We will support the legislation to go to a select committee with some strong reservations.  
As my colleagues have mentioned we are opposed to the 10-year regulatory forbearance period. We think it will enshrine a 10-year holiday from price regulation for whoever wins the contracts for the Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative and the Rural Broadband Initiative. We have concerns relating to affordability lack of transparency and the role of the Commerce Commission. We have some real questions around Telecom’s inclusion in this process.  
Ultimately the Labour Party is very committed to making sure that all New Zealanders have access to a much higher standard of broadband so we are pleased to see this initiative being progressed. We do not think the Government has made enough progress in this area despite its being National’s No. 2 election pledge and despite promising that ultra-fast broadband would be the cornerstone of the step change in the economy. That is what it promised New Zealanders at the last election.  
National has not kept many of its other election promises so I am not sure why any New Zealander would think it might keep this one. The Government certainly has not closed the wage gap with Australia as National promised during the election. The most it has come up with is a cycleway the result of which has been mixed at best and the “Holiday Highway” one of Steven Joyce’s major roads of national significance. We are finally getting something with regard to the promise to deliver broadband for all New Zealanders but it is not enough and it has been far too slow in coming. Thank you very much.