Martin TraceyTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you very much. Before I begin my contribution on the Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill can I just acknowledge please the Chamber support staff who are going to be finishing at the end of this week. This is likely to be the only contribution I give in this House this week and so I want to acknowledge those who are leaving us the time that they have given us and the care that they have given us over the years. We hope to see you again as friends perhaps even occasionally at the Back Bencher and we can buy you a beer. To move on to the Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill New Zealand First will support this bill to select committee only at this stage. We have some concerns and I think those concerns are based generally around the respect of property rights. I think they have been the concerns that have been articulated and why it has actually taken the Minister the time to get to this point because there is a balance between moving forward with progress and at the same time being respectful of each individual's property rights in this sort of an area. I personally believe that the two-tiered system that the Minister has set up is a very positive one. I think that having category 1 for example installations that use existing equipment aerial installations and installations that only disturb soft surfaces where those surfaces can be easily restored are reasonable. They sound reasonable but again we want to just say that we are going to support this bill to the select committee only because we want to hear from the public. I think Mr Parker has already referred to an example of cords wired by Chorus subcontractors or whomever being laid across gardens and so on. One cannot underestimate the passion that some people create in their gardens. A garden may be a soft surface but is it going to be able to be easily restored? I think it is about making sure that we have a reasonable understanding of what those parameters are going to be. The Minister has done a—a job on working to make sure those parameters are in place. The fact that we have a disputes resolution mechanism in here also—it is a tried and true process. We have used it in other formats. It is going to now be placed inside this environment. Again it gives us some hope that this is something that will sort out this disorder. Category 2 concerns the fact that installations are the width of the micro-trenching—that it is not more than a prescribed width—and that installations are predominantly below the surface such as directional drilling open trenching and those sorts of things. Again I think it is interesting though to look at the clauses that have actually been placed inside the bill like new section 155ZO(3) in clause 10: Before recommending regulations prescribing a method of installation as a category 1 installation under subsection (1)(e) the Minister must be satisfied that the installation will not have any lasting substantial physical impact on the property." One of the ways that a person with those property rights is going to be able to protect them is the 5 working days for a category 1 and the 15 working days for a category 2. So they are going to be able to lodge a complaint and no work—according to the information that we have at the moment through the regulatory impact statement and other documents—can be done on the property until it has been through the disputes resolution process. Then if there is still no agreement we understand that it can then go to the District Court. So there is still that process of protection for property rights and we are hopeful that it is going to be flexible enough and substantial enough to actually alleviate the fears of those people who are concerned about that. But we will hear about that at the select committee. I have no doubt that we will hear about that at the select committee. We are interested in what we believe to be a slight increase in the levy that is going to take place. It will be interesting to hear the service providers' perspective on that because I understand that there is an expectation that that will not be passed on to the consumer but we will be listening to hear how that is going to impact on the consumer and how this legislation is going to roll out. I just want to pick up on a couple of things that have already been said. I will be interested to have my peer who is sitting nearby Ria Bond sitting on the Commerce Committee because I understand that that is where this is going. I will be interested in whether this might affect the right to occupy and whether that affects those who are sitting inside the villages and so on and have rights to occupy as opposed to actually being on a cross-lease or in a body corporate situation.Chris Bishop: I'm sure Ria will be right on it.TRACEY MARTIN: It may not touch them at all but considering Mr Bishop that everyone has the right to this technology no matter where they live or what age they are that is something that needs to be considered. I pick up on Mr Parker's conversation around the technologies that are available using ultra-fast broadband. I think of some of the advances in nanotechnology that may actually assist this nation to keep people in their homes for longer thereby meaning that they are less of a financial burden in their old age inside institutions when they can stay in their home if we can actually create these technological leaps. I also take a little bit of an issue with regard to Mr Parker's conversation around copper and when the moment is to turn off the spend on copper. Doing a lot of work in my portfolio area for the member for Northland around the delivery of broadband and internet up in Northland with many many many of those people being reliant upon copper we would hope that until there has been a suitable solution for those communities and that nobody turns the tap off on upgrading the copper cabinets and actually doing the copper-fibre blend that is being talked about and delivered possibly through Northpower down power lines. I think also that it is interesting part of the reason—I think with regard to the contribution by the member from the Green Party—around the delay for Chorus for example being able to get ultra-fast broadband into homes. Agreeably the Minister pointed out that some of those delays are around this access issue but there is also a massive delay with regard to Chorus and there is a skills shortage—the inability of them to actually hire the number of people whom they can then train to deliver this service. So we have some other areas of inflexibility there that we also need to address. Lastly just to cap up New Zealand First will actually support this bill to select committee at this stage. We will be listening to the contributions of the submitters. The balance between property rights and access is the largest issue for us as infill housing takes a larger and larger place particularly inside of Auckland as we go forward. This could become a larger and larger issue. We can appreciate that. There needs to be an answer but it must be an answer that is balanced with the property rights of the existing population. Kia ora."