Wagner Nicky: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill — First Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:1050] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 There is no doubt that something has to be done about email. 
Katherine Rich 
: Absolutely. 
NICKY WAGNER 
: Absolutely. Unsolicited electronic messages flood into everybody’s in-boxes every day. One thing that we agree on is that we do not want it and we should get rid of it. It accounts for 40 to 75 percent of all email in New Zealand clogs our in-boxes and reduces workers’ productivity. Even in the carefully controlled information technology environment in Parliament we cannot seem to stop it. National supports this bill going to the select committee. We support it as a first step in dealing with spam but we do not believe that it will have any significant effect on the vast majority of spam which comes from overseas. 
The bill attacks the issue in three separate ways. It bans the sending of commercial spam with a New Zealand link without the prior consent of the recipient. That is the opt-in option. In other words the receiver must choose to receive the commercial or promotional email. I think that is reasonable. The bill also requires commercial or promotional electronic messages to include accurate identification details of the sender and an unsubscribe option. That is reasonable. The bill bans the use and distribution of address-harvesting software and that is reasonable. However legitimate businesses already follow those protocols voluntarily and this bill will do nothing to curtail the illegitimate spammers who have no intention of following our regulations. They will just operate internationally. 
We are all aware of the frustrations of spam—the offers of cheap drugs and software the invitations to visit pornographic sites the offers to enhance our sexuality and the thousand and one scams that tell us we have been miraculously picked to receive competition money inherit mysterious benefits or look after money from Nigeria. Oh that I should be as lucky as that! The amazing thing is that the whole system keeps going simply because people respond to the emails. Spam is a relatively new phenomenon and although there is a suite of existing laws that can deal with computer viruses pornographic offensive and misleading material forgery and harassment some legislation is needed to specifically ban unsolicited marketing material. 
This legislation will be unable to protect us from the overseas spam but it does bring us into line with other countries and it is an important signal that New Zealand is not a soft target for spammers and a place that welcomes their operation. At present the only method of controlling spam is filters. Filters are a hit-and-miss affair; they filter out legitimate emails as regularly as they do spam. Filters are designed to reject messages with “hot” words in them—words like “free” or “sex”. Members will all have had experience of their innocent emails disappearing into cyberspace simply because they have used “hot” words. I do not recommend inviting one’s children by email to see the movie  
Free Willy 
 or to listen to a sextet playing chamber music. Filters use technology to fight technology but they reduce the effectiveness of e-communication and often penalise legitimate opt-in communication. 
Nobody likes spam. It is out of control internationally so National will support this bill going to a select committee. We will support it as a necessary evil to support the global fight against spam and to stop New Zealand being seen as a welcoming home for spammers. But we do see the bill as a first step in dealing with spam and we do not believe that it will have a significant effect on the vast majority of spam which comes from overseas.