Young JonathanTELECOMMUNICATIONS (NEW REGULATORY FRAMEWORK) AMENDMENT BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed from 23 October.Part 1 Amendments to definitions and amendments related to copper fixed line access services (continued)JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): This is an important piece of legislation that supports the ongoing development of our communications infrastructure here in New Zealand which has done so well over a number of years in terms of the ultra-fast broadband roll out through the country that's seen New Zealand being one of the top countries in the world in fact.This is a very important piece of legislation as I said. The consultation around this development of the new regulatory framework was a consultation process that was undertaken between 2015 and 2017. Essentially it's about the transition between the copper network and the ultra-fast broadband or the fibre network. Its intention is to remove the regulation of copper lines where fibre is available and to streamline regulatory processes to enable a rapid response to competition issues and problems particularly in the mobile communications market. That market of course is moving so quickly.The Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee reported back with the bill and then on 16 October we received a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 118 from the honourable Minister Kris Faafoi which we are also taking into consideration. Part 1 of course is informed by this new Supplementary Order Paper. There are many aspects to consider in this. For example in Part 1 clause 4A this clause replaces section 6 with a new section clarifying how publication of public notice on the Commerce Commission website and in the New Zealand Gazette should take place. Effectively the new section would make it so that a summary of the matter required to be published needs to be included in the New Zealand Gazette rather than the whole document. That's a good question that perhaps the Minister could consider: why does the Minister or perhaps his officials feel that only a summary of public notice issues under the Telecommunications Act 2001 should be published in the New Zealand Gazette rather than the whole documentation? Certainly it's not a matter of saving trees. It's a matter of information being available to people.Will such a summary of a public notice issued under the Telecommunications Act 2001 include a web address to where the full documentation can be located in hard copy and not just via the internet? Certainly I think that is something which people would be interested to know. People do want full documentation. These documentations of course are very technical and very detailed. They mean a tremendous amount and rather than just the headline sections people want to have access to the finer points. As people always say the devil is in the detail so having access to that detail is incredibly important.I know we live in a society where we just go from headline to headline these days but when it comes to telecommunications and regulation—especially around the areas of competition—it's very very important for people to understand the detail. Perhaps the Minister can illuminate us more clearly on the rationale and the reasons why these decisions have been made.So in regards to the proposed subsection 6(3) if a public notice is dated and issued solely on the Commerce Commission website and not in the Gazette will the Government consider this the relevant date of public notice? If not we'd like to have a really good explanation from the Minister.So here we have in this bill a really important piece of legislation that will put in place a balance of incentives so that ongoing investment by the network providers will continue to be encouraged while consumers will continue to have services that are affordable delivered to them. Of course seeking the balance between affordability of service and a return on investment—especially in a monopolistic or quasi-monopolistic situation—is the work of the Commerce Commission that we want to see continue in a very effective way.This work is supported by National. It was begun by National during the last Parliament—[Time expired]