Groser Tim: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
Groser Tim: Communications Legislation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5593] 
TIM GROSER (National) 
: 
 Unlike my two distinguished predecessors Pansy Wong and Georgina te Heuheu I do not have their long background to give a historical view on the Communications Legislation Bill. But when I saw it on the Order Paper and realised that I usually speak on anything that has the whiff of a bipartisan approach—whether in respect of trade arts culture and heritage or whatever—I thought: “I know that the whip will pick me to take a call on this item.” So I guess I have to apply the great democratic process to the matter of the efficient regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. 
It is on occasions like this that I and others have to remind ourselves that in the past people have literally died to preserve my right to speak on the efficient regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. I must say that if any of those souls who paid the ultimate price are in some sense listening to this debate tonight—way up there above the upper troposphere in some ethereal sense—by the time they have finished hearing my intervention they may have regretted their decision. 
The great challenge for members coming to this topic brand new is to say anything remotely new remotely interesting or even vaguely controversial or provocative about the Communications Legislation Bill. It has been extensively described as a small and technical bill—and we are not referring to the official in the cardigan who wrote the bill but the bill itself. It is clearly deeply uncontroversial so can we relate it to the everyday concerns of our electorates? Well if we stick to the Standing Orders and the purpose of the bill the answer is: only with difficulty. But there is one exception and it relates to the matter of inappropriate receivers. 
New Zealand is actually the second-largest market in the world for the import of second-hand Japanese cars. We used to be the largest market in the world until the trade between Vladivostok and Osaka and Tokyo really took off and Japan discovered that the much larger population of Russia was also in the market. I myself have benefited from this for a little over a year. I got a nice little motor with 93000 kilometres on the clock. It has done me very well but I have had one problem—that of the inappropriate receiver on my motor vehicle. Until I started to research this bill about an hour and a half ago I had put this down to a combination of my at best only average techie skills plus the fact there was no instruction manual in the glove box of the car when I bought it. As any other member who has bought an imported Japanese car will know since the instruction manuals are in Japanese manufacturers rarely bother to include them for the average New Zealand consumer. 
But now I know that the problem was not due to either of those reasons; rather it is technically impossible to accurately programme those inappropriate receivers. So I spent a lot of time pushing buttons dialling knobs in Auckland—like other Aucklanders though I myself probably would be more accurately described as a weather refugee from Wellington—trying to tune into classic rock FM Flava Planet FM or the wonderfully named  
Wicked Latino 
. In fact it is technically not possible to do that. So it might be a tough decision in a sense— 
Maryan Street 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Can you clarify whether we are currently debating Part 1 or Part 2 because I think the member is speaking to Part 2—for all his research. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: We are in fact speaking to Part 1. The member should address that. I thank the member for bringing up that point. We are debating clauses 3 and 4. 
TIM GROSER 
: The basic thing is that we support the bill. It is a very small technical step. It is something that has to be done in a sensible way. We have no particular problem with the way this issue has been approached although we wonder sometimes why the Government has taken so long to get around to it. I will be speaking to the other matters later on at later stages. Thank you.