Wood MichaelMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): I am very happy to rise to speak to the Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I was not here as a member of the House in the earlier stages of this bill but it is one that I actually talk about quite a bit. As a new member people ask me what it is like to be a member of Parliament: What's it like in the House? What is it like in Parliament?".Richard Prosser: I hope you don't tell them.MICHAEL WOOD: Ha ha! Of course what people are interested in is the niggle. But actually I draw reference to this bill to explain to people that on some occasions this House and the processes we have in this House actually work well and that when we sit down with common objectives to improve the lot of people in our country and when we work through legislation in a sensible way with an eye on the benefits that we want to see for people we can actually get really really good outcomes. That is certainly the case with this bill. It is not the case with every bill but when we have a bill like this I think it is important that we do acknowledge it and in fact celebrate it.In this case it is particularly important because to me this bill is about equity. It is not just a technical bill—it could very easily be seen as something that is just about technology. It is sort of in that realm that is maybe very technical and does not impact on people's real lives that much but it is fundamentally about equity. It is about moving towards a situation in which all people in New Zealand have access to an incredibly important piece of infrastructure.What we do know is that there is a very real digital divide in New Zealand. This bill does help advance the closing of that digital divide. InternetNZ acknowledges this. It says that the internet has become an important part of participating in society and the digital divide between those who have internet access and those who do not is widening. This is backed up by research from Statistics New Zealand which has really looked into the impact that it has on different communities that do and do not have access to modern high-quality internet.Ten years ago we were probably just talking about whether people had access to the internet or not. Five years ago it was probably about whether people had access to dial-up ADSL or VDSL. Now the debate is about whether people have access to fibre that is fit for purpose. This goes to every part of our lives. It goes to the opportunities that small businesses have—to be flexible to be responsive to their customers and to get access to the services that they need to drive their businesses forward. It goes to education and the right of every single child no matter what community they live in no matter how rich or poor that community is whether it is in a city whether it is in a town or whether it is in the countryside to have access to the information and connection that the internet gives us. I have seen this first hand in my own child's school—a decile 2 school in Mount Roskill South. They are part of a programme called the Ako Hiko programme which gives every single child in the senior school access to the internet through Chromebooks. The opportunity it gives for inquiry learning and connection with other kids all around the world is simply enormous. It should be—and I am sure it is—the objective of every member of this House that all of our children share in that opportunity.More broadly it goes to the right of citizens to participate in our society. I will warrant that across the 121 members of this House every one of us enjoys that opportunity. Every single one of us runs most of our communications through the internet. Every single one of us keeps in contact with friends and family through the internet. We should want to ensure that every member of our society has that same opportunity.This bill does some very practical things to bridge that digital divide. As we have heard it provides a sensible regime in terms of allowing access for fibre to be rolled out for people in shared property types—down those shared driveways and into apartment buildings. This is important now because we know that there are something like 71000 people not just in those situations but 71000 people who are on the books ready and waiting for access to fibre who are having problems of one kind or another because of those difficulties that you can get when shared access issues arise. This bill very pragmatically looks to address those issues. It says that when you need to get through someone else's property in a shared property kind of situation let us actually have a look at the impacts. If the impacts are relatively minor—if it is simply digging up a bit of soft surface that you can very easily fix up afterwards it is something you should notify the person of—you should not have to go through an elaborate consent process. If it is a bit more complicated let us give the other property owner 15 days to raise any issues that they might have so that they can be worked through but let us not allow any of those objections to really hold things up unreasonably as sometimes does happen. It means increasingly for the New Zealanders who live in apartment buildings where there are common areas of access that technicians need to get into to install fibre we have simplified provisions in terms of how that might work.Some other important aspects of the bill include the dispute resolution service because of course when we do start getting into this area of property rights moving across properties where people have multiple interests it is important that there is some recourse for people who may have concerns.My colleague Clare Curran spoke earlier about Part 4 of the bill which is actually the revolutionary part of this bill. It is the bit that was not there when the bill was first tabled in the House. It is the bit of the bill that Clare Curran has been campaigning on for years and years and years with a real passion and it is about looking at some sensible mechanisms to get fibre out into our communities in the provinces and in regional New Zealand because that is one of those places in which the digital divide I spoke about before is most keenly felt. There are tens of thousands of New Zealanders who actually even under the provisions of this bill are still unlikely to get access to fibre by 2024 but the provisions of this bill will improve that situation somewhat.What I really liked about this bill was that elegant solution that we have arrived at. As David Parker said before we are talking about private property rights here and some impingement on those private property rights. We are looking at stringing infrastructure across people's private property without necessarily seeking their permission in the first instance. That is pragmatic and reasonable but it is an impingement on those private property rights. The elegant solution that we have arrived at here is that for those people most likely on a farm who are having a bit of fibre strung up on the power poles across their property that property will get access to that fibre with 200 metres of that fibre rolled out to their property and then a 50 percent subsidy if it needs to be above 200 metres. I just think that it was a sensible smart and pragmatic process that the select committee went through to get to that outcome. It came about because of a submission from Northpower it came about because of the tenacity of Clare Curran and it came about because of the pragmatism and reasonableness across that split committee to try to get to a sensible outcome. I think that everyone involved in getting there deserves some commendation in this debate and I offer that forward.Where do we go to from here? Probably the lesson of this bill is that we cannot take our foot off the accelerator. This bill has come about as a result of deficiencies in the roll-out of fibre across New Zealand because we knew that we were not doing well enough. We still have 15 percent of New Zealanders who under the Government's current track of progress and under the provisions of this bill which are improved still will not have access to fibre by 2024. That is tens of thousands of households. There are parts of Auckland not too far from where I live which still will not have access to fibre for 2 years from now. That is actually a very very long time to wait in the modern world.As I move towards a conclusion in this debate this is clearly a bill that as we have heard the Labour Party commends to the House and will be supporting but it cannot be the end of the matter. We need to keep moving on this. We need to roll out that fibre so that every kid in every school has access to it so that every small business has got access to it and so that every person in their home can connect with the world around them. If we can do that I think this house should be very pleased with that outcome but it will require real work. As we have seen over the course of this bill what can help us to get there is cooperation between parties and a real focus on getting outcomes for people. That is my plea to the House as I roll up my remarks. Let us pick up the spirit that came through in this bill and recommit to getting fibre access to all New Zealanders to enhance every aspect of their lives. I commend this bill to the House."