Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister for Communications): It is really good to take a call on this bill. I agree with the member Clare Curran that it is an important fundamental bill. The reason for that is that whilst at first glance it might seem like it deals with some relatively neat issues such as consenting property access around some easements and a few driveways actually she is dead right that it fundamentally means much more than that. It means that ultra-fast broadband (UFB)—the gold standard in internet connectivity not just in New Zealand but around the world—is coming to many more New Zealanders. I want to come back to that shortly.Can I also just say the member said she is effusive about this bill and she should be—she should be—because it really is a good piece of work by the Commerce Committee. Whilst I do not agree with her about it not being a matter of Government policy—it has gone through a Cabinet process a very substantive Cabinet process and has come out the other side as the policy of the National-led Government—what I will say to the member is this: credit where credit is due. The select committee has done a fine job. I want to thank Melissa Lee the chair for her work on this bill and I also want to thank the member Clare Curran for taking a very diligent and constructive approach to this. I know she is—it is an overused word—passionate about these issues and dedicated to them so as I say once again I thank her for that.She has mentioned the Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) in this area. There is one particularly large SOP that as she rightly says is very technical in nature. I think as a measure of our sense that she is acutely interested in and passionate about these issues and of the Government's desire to play with an open bat on this I have given her literally all of our advice on this SOP so that she can go through the technical details and can see what it is and where it is that the Government's advice is coming from on this. I am very gratified by that approach from the Government and the Opposition and as I understand the support of the Opposition for that SOP.Can I just come back to this bill. It is about much more than just streamlining the process for installing UFB. It is so much more than that. It is connecting tens of thousands more New Zealanders to high-speed internet. We were told through the select committee process and through the Government's homework in this area that there are 71000 households that at the moment cannot obtain active consent from the other property owner concerned. That is not in many cases because they are actively opposed. It is just because they are I do not know too busy watching Netflix or are preoccupied with something else and have not got can I say their a" into "g" to do the consenting in this area.This bill deals with that. It means it will be faster to get through those issues. That is incredibly important. It does not just mean it will be a bit faster for households; it means that where they could not fundamentally get the broadband—the UFB fibre—to their homes because they could not work through those issues now they will. It does that by having effectively a tiered consenting regime a very simple process to step through—firstly at category 1 where there is no substantial enduring impact on shared properties. So the UFB is not going to cause as I say a lasting substantial physical impact on the property. Then you get to walk through the steps with 5 working days' notice in general terms.In other cases it is slightly more complex than this but for the vast run of cases if it is not category 1 it is category 2 where there is a greater level of impact. But where the impact is still considered justifiable in support of the mass-market roll-out of the next-generation telecommunications network then it is a 15 working days' process with some specific grounds for objecting.That is in many ways I would suggest—there are other parts and other things in the bill—the guts of it. I say again that I agree with the previous speaker. This fundamental bill will make a great difference."