Stewart Barbara: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill — Second Reading 
Stewart Barbara: Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill — Second Reading 
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BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I rise to support the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill. Unsolicited commercial spam is increasingly becoming a problem on every PC and the bottom line is that we dislike it intensely. We do not care whether it is promotional or commercial; we do not want either. We just want it done away with on our PCs. We want to be able to unsubscribe so that we do not have to bother with this total waste of time. 
It is quite interesting to note that spam appears to be more sophisticated and more difficult to detect because even the software here in Parliament can manage to detect only a percentage of some of the spam emails that come through. Like most MPs I received over 400 emails during the recent adjournment period stored in the spam folder. But this was not all of the spam that was on my computer; some of it actually went through into my new emails and bypassed the spam filter. 
Of course spam is a total waste of time. What do we have coming through to us? We have deals on software that we do not need; medications that of course we would not want to buy off the Internet; online drugstores with various medications and again we do not even want to know about them; nonsense words all put together; programming symbols; and even Asian words or some other writing. It all comes through into the spam filter. We also have stocks and bonds which are something that one would never ever just buy on the Internet. 
If we look back over the history of spam the first instance of spam occurred way back in 1978 when Gary Thuerk from the Digital Equipment Corporation sent an email to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the USA—ARPANET was a very early version of today’s Internet—and that resulted in 600 emails being sent. His actions prompted many angry emails in reply due to his inappropriate usage of the Internet. What do we have now? We have spam as a serious worldwide problem that basically is threatening to cripple the Internet due to the huge volume of unsolicited mail. The phenomenal number of emails generated each day is growing exponentially with the most recent figures showing that in June 2006 worldwide 55 billion spam emails were generated each day. This figure has roughly doubled since June 2005 when 30 billion spam emails were generated each day. 
As previous speakers have said spam is one of the curses of the Internet. I think it is worth reflecting that although we receive quite a few hundred emails each week perhaps we should spare a thought for people like Bill Gates who receives over 4 million junk emails each year—far more than we hope ever to have to cope with. 
Although this bill is a good start it is worth reflecting that only 10 percent of the spam affecting New Zealanders actually originates here in New Zealand. Minister Cunliffe stated that the bill will really be enforceable only in New Zealand. Because of this to deal effectively with the spam we now have there needs to be serious international cooperation. New Zealand by itself can do absolutely nothing. Ninety percent of the spam in Kiwi email in-boxes comes from outside New Zealand with the majority of it coming from the USA China South Korea and Russia. This bill will not have a direct impact on those nations unfortunately but it does show our commitment to doing our bit to try to stem this international problem. 
When I looked at the Commerce Committee’s report I noted that the select committee recommends amending clauses 23 24 and 25 in order to remove the requirement that complaints from spam recipients were directed back to Internet service providers. This is a good move as the original provisions may have placed an unreasonable burden and significant enforcement cost on Internet service providers. It is likely however that the Internet service providers will remain the first point of call for customers who want to complain about unsolicited electronic messages but that is not a role we can force upon the Internet service providers. The select committee also recommends extending the transition period before the bill takes effect from 4 months to 6 months. It is good to see that on this occasion the committee did take the advice of submitters and it recommended the extension which will allow organisations to implement the required changes—which of course they have to do. 
New Zealand First does support this bill. It is only a small start. We know that spam is providing a real challenge and that it will continue to do so. New Zealand First wants to see every possible assistance given to all Internet users and to all email users in order to prevent New Zealand becoming a safe haven for spammers because that is something we definitely do not want to see. Thank you.