Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Thank you Mr Speaker. Like many others in the Chamber this afternoon I too would like to acknowledge the members of the Citizens Advice Bureau and all the hard work you have done and I'd like to offer a huge congratulations actually. I'm not sure if you're quite aware of your achievement in getting the Minister responsible here to listen to these concerns today because trust me when I tell you as the MP for Selwyn that I have written dozens and dozens and dozens of times drawing his attention to the issues of connectivity and therefore digital exclusion in this part of Canterbury specifically. Well done to you all for taking this initiative because when we talk about digital exclusion across New Zealand yes of course we do talk about web-based services and online services particularly Government services but I'd like to concentrate my comments this afternoon on the infrastructure that is absolutely essential to provide these services.I think the theme of leaving no one behind is very very pertinent here. I represent a region of about 72000 people and increasingly due to the massive growth in our region more and more and more people are being left behind and it's really starting to hurt it is really starting to bite. No matter how many times I have written to the Minister responsible or indeed the CEOs of the various telcos involved we've had very very little response and very little uptake. So the plea from this side of the House is to see some massive investment into that infrastructure and architecture in this country that will provide these services. The Minister is shaking his head at me but I can absolutely confirm there has been no investment in the region of Selwyn. Every week I hear from locals who are not able to make phone calls receive texts in their homes get online run their businesses have their kids learning online or anything else and that's irrespective of whether they live in the Canterbury high country in the Malvern foothills or in the middle of Rolleston or Lincoln which are big fast-growing urban towns. I think the example that really strikes at my heart is the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade which operates in one of Selwyn's largest towns. It has such bad coverage that every time the emergency siren goes off there has to be a phone tree—a ring around of landlines to make sure that all the guys and girls get the call and turn up at the station to attend the emergency event. I think that is a very raw a very real example of where digital inclusion for all is fundamental to our society.If I look further across my electorate and up the Rākaia Gorge there's an extraordinary scenarios going on there where on the north side of the river the locals have banded together to work with the Rural Connectivity Group to put up a cell tower and they have coverage. On the other side of the river in the line of sight of that tower there are about 10 families who are still operating on old analogue radios. Now I put it to the Rural Connectivity Group from Vodafone recently that one day there will be a fatality up that valley and that is because there is a vast amount of trampers fishers farmers tourists—all sorts of vehicles going up and down those roads. There are scrub fires there are avalanches there are floods and there are rock falls. There have already been two scenarios where a gentleman has had to be medevaced out of there because they had a radio telephone system because he got in farm accidents. It is not good enough in this day and age that there are rural isolated communities who are excluded from digital services that are essential to running this country.The consistent message from locals across the region whether they are in town or whether they are in the countryside is that they need to be included they need to have equity in services irrespective of where their address is and they need to be able to contribute engage and function in society on an equal footing. So again I just thank and I acknowledge the Citizens Advice Bureau for their work for drawing attention to this. I congratulate you for getting the Government to listen and we on this side of the House do what we can to continue to endorse your work and push the Government for results in this space.