Martin Tracey: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3769. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Can I just allay the fears of the Green Party member James Shaw by saying that New Zealand First member Darroch Ball is a member of Mensa and that he actually understood the algebra in this bill—so New Zealand First was well-informed when it voted thank you very much.New Zealand First is supporting this bill because New Zealand First believes it should be supported. We would agree with Labour in some areas. We would agree with the Labour Party that it would be a good idea for the Commerce Commission to do an inquiry or a review of the $300 million spend. I disagree with Melissa Lee when she waved her hands wide and said that you have to stop everything in order to do a review. I remind Ms Lee of the digital literacy inquiry which actually looked at the work of Network for Learning. It was done by the Education and Science Committee under the chairmanship of Nikki Kaye and that inquiry changed the direction of Network for Learning while it was still going. While it was still being developed the inquiry identified that it was going in the wrong direction and it shifted direction so that it was a much better provider.We would also agree with the Labour Party on the need for local small to medium sized enterprises to be part of this roll-out and to be able to participate in the provision of the Rural Broadband Initiative. We are sitting here on 21 May and it interests me that on 19 May the Warkworth Area Business Association put out this email to all its members. The title of this email is “Ultra-fast broadband improvements”. Much has been made that the industry did not know that this funding was coming. Much has been made that the industry did not have an opportunity to be consulted. Again I say that lobbyists for industries always have the telephone numbers of Ministers. I find it hard to believe that the industry did not call the Minister’s office and have a conversation about this. The email goes on to say that on 12 March the Government announced that this funding was coming.I think it is pertinent to the bill that we are talking about—and to the conversation that has been had about whether there has been consultation about whether there has been a review about whether there is going to be participation by the public which is the other area that has been addressed—that this email says: “The ultra-fast broadband 2 funding is intended for rural towns.” It says: “In order to make an informed decision about how to allocate funding central government has invited local authorities including Auckland Council to submit a registration of interest. This is an opportunity to communicate to central government any issue with broadband and the level of demand for better services in rural Auckland. We would like your help to make sure that we get as much accurate information to Government as possible.” The questions they ask relate to a description of where you live i.e. the boundary of your community; what your current internet service is like; what problems you have with your broadband connection; the extent of the problems; and what demand for broadband services is like in your community. They ask members to please provide other information around business information and any other information that they want to provide to the register of interests for the funding for the broadband roll-out.That is the Warkworth Area Business Association. That is a local group taking control and talking and sending directly to Government information around how this—what we are talking about tonight; what will be funded—is delivered. We take the Minister’s word that the reason this needs to go through under urgency is that without the levy that has been there since 2011 and without it being secured in legislation until 2020 there is no way that the Minister can start the process of deciding how and where it will be spent. This is a process matter at the moment. We agree that sometimes process needs to be short-circuited. In this instance this is a continuation of a levy that has been in place for several years that was fully consulted on and that the telecommunications companies knew was coming and the levy is to continue to deliver what we know is needed.However we do support many of the areas that the Labour Party has mentioned; we just do not support their call to try to stop this bill tonight. We have a member on the Commerce Committee. We would support a call from that committee to do a review or an inquiry and to actually have a go at making sure that up to this point we have been in the right direction—how we could possibly while the Minister is consulting the communities have a look at this and make some bright decisions. Let us not change just for change’s sake but let us actually look at where we might be able to improve. Kia ora.