Adams AmyTELECOMMUNICATIONS (PROPERTY ACCESS AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon AMY ADAMS (Minister for Communications): E Te Mana Whakawā tēnā koe. I move That the Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Commerce Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by a date that is 4 months and 1 day from the date that the bill receives its first reading. The amendments in this bill will make it easier for people to connect to ultra-fast broadband (UFB) as well as make more minor changes to improve the liability allocations process for the telecommunications development levy and ultimately extend the regulatory requirements to the second phase of the UFB contracts. This bill creates a new consenting process that telecommunications companies must follow when installing modern telecommunications networks such as UFB. At least 80 percent of New Zealanders will have access to UFB by 2022. Already at least 50 percent of our population has that access. Demand in New Zealand for faster better broadband is huge and continues to grow fuelled by the Government's UFB roll-out. However not all of those with access are able to connect easily. Around 225000 UFB orders will need permission for access to property shared between neighbours such as shared driveways or in apartment buildings. The current process also creates delays. As of April this year there were almost 800 orders on the books where the consenting process had been running for 50 working days or longer without resolution. The bill aims to reduce delays in cancelled orders for UFB to result in better outcomes for those ready to connect. A tiered consenting regime will allow installation methods to be prescribed into two categories according to the impacts those methods are considered to have on shared property. Installation methods with the lowest impacts will no longer need consent from other parties. Under a category 1 installation the UFB connection is determined to have no lasting impacts on property. In these cases a statutory right will be provided for a network operator to continue with the installation after providing 5 working days' notice. This is estimated to cover about a third of installations in shared driveways. A category 2 installation means that the connection will have some lasting minor impact on a property. This could include drilling a cable underground or leaving small potholes to access cable networks. Under these installations neighbours will be provided with a high-level design and given 15 working days to object on a number of limited grounds. This is estimated to cover off about half of all installations in shared driveways. For multi-unit complexes governed by a body corporate the consenting process will vary slightly from this tiered regime to better fit in with these existing governance structures. Installation methods that do not fit into the new categories will continue to be subject to existing consenting requirements. A disputes resolution process will also be created to ensure that any disputes that arise as a result of the new consenting regime are dealt with fairly and efficiently. The bill extends the regulatory requirements relating to the first phase of UFB to the extension of the programme. These minor technical changes are consistent with what Parliament has already enacted for the first phase once commercial negotiations for the second phase are concluded. Two statutory authorisations are provided under the Commerce Act for potential partnering arrangements between Chorus and the Crown that may emerge from the UFB extension tender process. The proposal to provide statutory authorisations should not be viewed as predetermining the outcome of the tendering process. It is instead a pre-emptive action consistent with the first phase of the programme to allow the Government to have a full set of options available to it for the tender process. I commend the bill to the House.