Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's my pleasure to take this split call on the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Bill. I do so because what this bill actually says is that it brings into play a change in the system from 2020 or if the Commerce Commission agrees in 2022.Ultra-fast broadband (UFB) and fibre is the next wave of technological advancement for New Zealand and the last National Government spent about $2 billion rolling it out in a leading-edge way across New Zealand. I heard a previous speaker talk about the fact that our broadband speeds are higher than Australia's. In fact in most countries I've travelled to our broadband speeds are higher in New Zealand than in most other comparable countries. We're in a very good space and it enables a whole raft of technology to be rolled out in New Zealand in homes businesses factories workplaces and for recreation; so it is important that we have a regulatory framework that is new and modern and updated particularly now that we have 1.4 million people with connections and as I've said the previous Government spent around $2 billion on rolling that out across New Zealand.The Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee—even though I wasn't part of it at the time—did a really good job in my view. It had 257 submissions and about 31 oral submissions. They did a really good job and I do want to compliment and acknowledge the Hon Kris Faafoi for picking this up and outlining to the House in his speech what it was about from the Government's perspective.I do also want to acknowledge the limitations in this bill that have been placed on Chorus. For listeners who may be listening at this time of night effectively what the select committee considered was whether in fact Chorus would have a monopolistic advantage over other players in the market if it was allowed to get into the retail space. The select committee was persuaded that it did and therefore it made some rules and regulations to protect that from being exploited.This really is about making sure that there is a level of minimum standard and commitment for UFB in parts of New Zealand and where that doesn't exist a requirement to continue to provide copper-based technology. When the Hon Simon Bridges announced this in June of 2017 it was very much about making a fit for purpose framework.I want to particularly go to new sections 69AA and 69AC in clause 7 in the bill which are specifically around specified fibre areas. The main point for me is that The Commission must before the implementation date and at least annually thereafter carry out an assessment to determine the geographic areas in which fibre fixed line access services are available to end-users." In other words that assessment needs to be made before you can roll out to new section 69AC which allows people to withdraw copper from those same areas. In other words if you have fibre in an area under this provision copper can be removed and it's pretty clearly spelt out. But I want to reiterate and repeat something that my learned colleague before me Mr Ian McKelvie said: it is really hard to understand the unintended consequences in this space.I refer to an article from Mr Pattrick Smellie on 7 December 2017 where he talked about the 5G network and the requirement to look at the 5G network—which pretty much means there's thousands of new cell sites in New Zealand that need to be rolled out—and how that needs to be done. That is a new change.I also acknowledge the Hon Tracey Martin and Mr McKelvie. I think the committee of the whole House does have a role to make sure that vulnerable people and low-income people who actually can't afford UFB to the house—it might be going past their door—still have access to basic phone services because older people and vulnerable people who are not yet connected to UFB don't understand what a modem is let alone what to do if it goes wrong and actually need to be looked after.So I look forward to the committee of the whole House and I think there's a lot of ground we can do as a Parliament and a lot of things we can do to make this bill better in that process. I commend the bill to the House."