Donnelly Brian: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
Donnelly Brian: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:6036] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 I want to make a fairly brief contribution. First I would like to respond to some of the things Pansy Wong said. I have to say to her that in fact her party can pay back the GST any time it wants. All it has to do is take out the cheque book put in the correct figures get the signatures and amounts on the paper put “TVNZ” on the top of the cheque and send it off—and the bill would be paid. 
New Zealand First had a bit of a conundrum with this legislation because we supported Part 1 but had some difficulties with Part 2 which we have pointed out. In respect of Part 2 we alerted Parliament to the fact that we had concerns and we alerted Parliament to what those concerns were during the second reading debate. We said we would put forward a Supplementary Order Paper on the second part and we made it very clear to the Government that if the Supplementary Order Paper did not proceed we would not be able to continue to support the second part of this split bill. 
As it was we were able to take our concerns to the Minister of Communications David Cunliffe and I believe there is a lesson here for some of the Opposition members in learning how MMP actually operates. The Minister instead of saying: “No no no—that’s all been sorted out by the select committee. No there are no issues here—I don’t want to hear you.” actually sat down and listened. When he listened he found there were genuine concerns. As a result he was able to facilitate meetings with the groups concerned and once again he was open-minded enough to say that there were some genuine issues involved and that he would do what he could to respond to them. He did respond to them in such a way that it placated the concerns of the particular users group that had brought the concerns to New Zealand First and we were able to proceed with this legislation with everybody feeling somewhat more secure about its outcomes than they did before. 
That is MMP in operation. No one party has a mortgage on all the wisdom in this Parliament but unless certain parties that have been in power in the past learn that lesson they will in continue in the positions where they are for a long long time. I know about coalition and I tell members here and now that when it comes to education Wyatt Creech and I could teach many people here how MMP can operate and operate constructively. 
The problem that was pointed out by the Radio Frequency Users Association actually emanated from the Radiocommunications Act 1989 under which there were certain obligations for the Government to meet. The Government did meet those obligations when it came to cellular broadcasting television and cellular services but it completely failed to meet them when it came to the land mobile radio spectrum. The question therefore has to be asked: who was in Government for 9 of those years since that time? In fact the party that did not meet the obligations under that Act is the party now sitting on the Opposition benches. That needs to be recognised. 
After all that time—from 1989 when the Act came in and there has been a problem ever since—what party was able to reconcile the issues and fix the problems? The answer is that New Zealand First was able to take up the cudgels of that vitally important group and the services it operates—vitally important particularly in emergencies—and New Zealand First was able to say that something had to be done. We would use the power of our vote in this Parliament to be able at least to get some leverage with the Minister. Fortunately we had a Minister who was prepared to listen and we were able to move the thing forward in a constructive fashion. New Zealand First is very proud of what it has been able to achieve in terms of this legislation and we will be very pleased to vote for it.