Curran Clare: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3763. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Labour believes that there should be an inquiry into the Rural Broadband Initiative. If there is anything that has come out of the debate tonight then it is that this Government does not listen and that that Minister Amy Adams does not listen. This Minister pushes things through and ignores concerns. She has denied that this is a tax. It is obvious that this is clearly a tax on consumers and it is going to be imposed on consumers. She has refused to answer questions about the evidential basis for the rural broadband scheme and whether it has actually delivered. She has refused point-blank to provide any evidence to the House or in this debate and her ministry has not provided any information on this.The debate that the Opposition parties have had tonight begins the debate that should have been held in a select committee. This should have been a first reading speech. If this had been a first reading speech then the Labour Party would have supported the bill in its first reading. The Labour Party would have supported the bill in its first reading. This is a bill that is being taken through all its stages under urgency with no opportunity for submitters to come before a select committee or for members of a select committee to ask for evidence from all parts of the rural community. We have heard tonight from some of the industry players. We have heard from a major telecommunications company. We have heard from an industry association that represents the telecommunications industry and we have heard from the organisation that represents the smaller wireless internet service providers which are the ones that are coming up and the ones that are building strong community-based connectivitythroughout New Zealand that is not part of the Rural Broadband Initiative. Those are the organisations that should be being supported and nurtured but the Rural Broadband Initiative is not doing that.The Rural Broadband Initiative has had no scrutiny and the next part of the Rural Broadband Initiative will have no scrutiny either which is why Labour cannot support it. If there is to be an inquiry then we need to take a principled view on this and that is what Labour has done tonight. Labour members took a consistent principled view on these issues when they went into the election. We went into the election with policy that raised concerns about the Rural Broadband Initiative. We said that there had been ongoing concerns over a number of years that the Rural Broadband Initiative was not delivering broadband to the tens of thousands of rural New Zealanders. We said that the existing scheme was inadequate for the needs of many of our rural communities and that although it was providing internet access via cellphone towers—that is an improvement over dial-up and there is no doubt about that—it falls far short of the quality and speed provided to urban New Zealanders through ultra-fast broadband and existing connections. This is not the step change that the Government promised. The standard of rural broadband services has been woefully less than the step change that was promised. We have taken a principled position on this and we are holding to that position.This issue is not about telecommunications companiesactually. It is not even about the instrument of the telecommunications development levy as a levy—that is not what this debate is about. It is about what this Government is doing without scrutiny under the cover of urgency. It is pushing legislation through that will spend $150 million of new money which is going to be paid for by the industry but will be passed on to consumers—and I do not think that anyone can argue about that tonight—and the debate is about whether or not it is right to do so. We have missed a stage in the process and it is a critical stage. We are the legislators. We are the legislators who are making the decisions on these issues and we have got to be accountable for them. If you do not take a principled position and you allow a piece of legislation that commits $150 million to go through all its stages under urgency with no scrutiny then the Labour Party thinks that that is irresponsible. We cannot in good conscience vote for this bill because it has not gone through the right process. The Minister has not addressed the important questions that have been raised tonight. She has glossed over the issues. She has refused to answer questions about where the accountability for the Rural Broadband Initiative lies and where the economic analysis for the next tranche of this programmesits.There are real New Zealand businesses that are investing heavily without Government or industry-funded money through a levy. They are investing heavily in their local communities. They are based in places like Gore Ōwaka Timaru Ashburton Culverden Seddon Richmond Masterton Napier Palmerston Palmerston North Inglewood Hamilton Tauranga Waiheke and Whangarei. The organisation that contacted us via the email that my colleague from New Zealand First Tracey Martin read out earlier is an organisation that was formed only recently and that represents those wireless internet service providers that are the quintessential essence of what innovation in rural New Zealand looks like. But they are struggling because they are doing it themselves and this Government has allowed a programme to be developed around rural broadband that firstly has not delivered for consumers and secondly has provided the money mainly to big providers which have entrenched their status in rural New Zealand and have blocked many of those smaller companies from coming through.There are no guarantees by passing this legislation tonight that those smaller companies are going to get a look-in and are going to be able to thrive. That is the story. That is what we should be promoting here tonight: the progress of a piece of legislation that is going to nurture those sorts of businesses and allow communities to develop connection capability that actually suits their region and that is not part of a one-size-fits-all structure which is what this Minister is proposing and which the previous Rural Broadband Initiative has done and has not delivered on. Labour cannot support this bill tonight because we have taken a principled position. We are absolutely committed to rural connectivity. We are the party that took comprehensive policy into the last election. We are the party that works alongside rural New Zealand and rural communities. We are the party that knows how to do this well rather than the once-over-lightly from the Minister and what she is proposing to this House. We do not support this bill.