Mentions of Telecom New Zealand Limited in New Zealand Parliament debates

Hon JIM ANDERTON ... that have taken place in Parliament under MMP. I remember that 93 percent of the population was against the sale of Telecom in 1990. I was in this House when Richard Prebble got up and said that the country was “lucky to have a Government of ...

SUE KEDGLEY ... a very supportive and egalitarian culture, which I suspect is rare in the political world. I recall a meeting with Telecom, shortly after we were elected. I felt they were trying to lead us up the garden path, so I gave Rod a gentle kick ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE ... for the sector to encourage more competition. One of the outcomes of the ultra-fast broadband initiative is that Telecom is to split itself into two separate companies, and of those two companies one will own the monopoly infrastructure ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... about the 2-year breach—I know because I have seen a copy of the letter—that she has written to you about in the Telecom structural separation case. Mr Speaker, I do not think I am asking you to rule immediately on this question, but I ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... with Mr Carter, I think at the beginning of 1994, to the United States. At that stage the then two-thirds owners of Telecom—two US companies—hosted us. I think these days one could not think of many less likely members of Parliament to be ...

Hon SHANE JONES ... them wither away whilst they serve the dictates and the imperatives of overseas investors who, as we learnt with Telecom, are interested only in gouging, stripping, and taking away the largesse to meet the expectations of shareholders, ...

Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS I want this afternoon to talk about Telecom’s new monopoly status, and what that will mean for the New Zealand economy. On 22 April 2008 John Key said that the ...

Hon DAVID PARKER ... Douglas for his contribution. It is good that it is on the record, and I would just add that in addition to that, Telecom received regulatory protection that we still have not been able to unpick, because Telecom has not been transparent ...

Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP ... when it was in office in 1989. Would Labour members seriously suggest today that New Zealand taxpayers should own Telecom? Would they seriously suggest today that it would be a good idea to have a network of State hotels? Would they ...

CLARE CURRAN ... the “Minister for Miscommunications and Misinformation”, Steven Joyce, works out how to give almost $1.5 billion to Telecom to roll out our newest and most important network of ultra-fast broadband. Telecom, which in 2009 helped pay for a ...

BRENDON BURNS ... Solid Energy, and Air New Zealand. I put on record my opposition to those sales, and say that in the late 1990s Telecom was sold by the Government for the sum of $4.5 billion. It accrued $14.5 billion in dividends and payments back to ...

Hon DAVID PARKER ... are increased prices to the cost of consumers while the infrastructure is run down. That was the experience with Telecom and New Zealand Rail, and that will be the experience in respect of the electricity companies if the Government sells ...

CLARE CURRAN ... Joyce announced that the Government was negotiating a $300 million contract for rural broadband with a consortium of Telecom and Vodafone, which are the two biggest players in the telecommunications scene. They are the incumbents. National’s ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE I move, That the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. This bill lays the regulatory ...

CLARE CURRAN ... New Zealanders in their homes in 10 years for $1.5 billion. The National Government is pushing through this bill, the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, because it wants to satisfy that election promise—a ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE In the third reading of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, I am not going to comment on the member who has just ...

GARETH HUGHES ... the whole process—is an “Ultra-farce Broadband Bill”. It is a privilege to be here today and to take a call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Bill. The Green Party supports better broadband. We know that it is ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... to say that one could invent a number of more appropriate titles for the bill. For example, we could call it the “Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, Telecom Subsidy, and Avoidance of Regulatory Matters) Bill” or a number of other ....

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE ... some of the themes of the discussion. The Opposition is with a certain sense of sadness, I guess, witnessing the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill moving its way through the Committee. Maybe one could ...

Hon DAVID PARKER I would like to focus my comments on the commencement date and the interrelationship between the clauses in the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill that were to have limited the ability of the Commerce ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... very clear—ultra-fast broadband. But Labour does not want an inappropriate subsidy to go to the overseas owners of Telecom, and we do not want the inappropriate regulatory environment that is coming in under this bill. To be fair, I think ...

CLARE CURRAN I am pleased to take a call on Part 2 of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I will address an issue that lies at the very heart of ...

Hon DAVID PARKER The history of Part 2 of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is illustrative of the poor process that the Government ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE In the Committee stage of the debate on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill we are looking at Part 2. I will do that, firstly, by ...

CLARE CURRAN ... thank the Minister in the chair, the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, for taking a call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Bill. I am very pleased that he got to his feet and talked to us about ...

CLARE CURRAN I rise to speak to Part 1 of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and to express deep concerns about it. It is a dog’s ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... comments that have been made by my colleague Clare Curran. I think a number of members have today been approached by telecommunications companies that are uncertain as to the effect that those changes have. I think it is very important to get ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE I am very pleased to rise to take a call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. It makes possible the Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative ...

CLARE CURRAN Before I get into the other issues we are raising today in relation to the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and the amendments we are putting up, I again ask the ...

Hon DAVID PARKER ... and with less than a day’s notice to members of Parliament, being asked to remove the Kiwi share obligation for Telecom. For just about everyone in New Zealand, in our homes and businesses, the three most important utilities are water, ...

GARETH HUGHES Kia ora, Mr Chairperson. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I am going to take a quick call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I want to put into Hansard the absolutely shocking and ...

Hon RICK BARKER ... obligation was put in there for good reason. It was to protect the public against the predations of a monopolistic Telecom. The Kiwi share was an obligation and a burden upon Telecom, one that it has jibbed against, shrugged against, and ...

GARETH HUGHES I will take just a very quick call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. In the hour I have been in this Chamber, in the very ...

STUART NASH ... states: “These amendments are to reflect that the KSO will not be operative following the structural separation of Telecom:”. I am not 100 percent sure what that means. Does that mean it will be turned off and it can be turned on again, or ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD I would like to take the Minister to some of the detail of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and focus in particular on the sections that are near ...

CLARE CURRAN I am pleased to take a call on Part 1A of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, and signal that Labour is putting up three amendments ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... there to be one in November, each of these details will be reviewed and all comforts that this Minister has given to Telecom and any of the other providers will also be reviewed and they will not be guaranteed. I want to make it clear and ...

PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA It is a privilege to take a short call on Part 1A of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, but first I congratulate the Minister for ...

GRANT ROBERTSON It is a pleasure to join in this debate on Part 1A of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. The Minister in the chair, the Minister for ...

STUART NASH ... obligation under that clause, but there is not a legal obligation for him to consult the commission with regard to Telecom’s asset allocation plan. I just wonder whether the Minister is thinking of doing that. I go down to clause 23F, “Tele...

DAVID BENNETT I take a call in regard to Part 1A of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. This bill is part of the economic step change that the ...

CLARE CURRAN I have been listening closely to the discussion on Part 1A of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. A number of specific questions have been put to the ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... question and that there has been a vote on it. There has been only 1 hour’s debate on the structural separation of Telecom. Therefore, I move, That the Speaker be recalled to give a ruling on this matter.

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... clear in the past, but it is Labour’s view that this is an egregious breach of reasonable practice. This part of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill deals with the structural separation of Telecom and the ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE I move, That the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. I begin by thanking the ...

CLARE CURRAN Let me say from the outset that Labour opposes the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, and we will vote against it. Labour is committed to ...

AMY ADAMS It is a great pleasure to rise in the second reading debate and speak in favour of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which, as others have said, has spent some time before ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD ... and to the way our economy works. I also agree with her point—and it is a point made by the Minister in charge of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, Steven Joyce—that this is part of the country’s ...

GARETH HUGHES ... Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. It is a real privilege to take a call today on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. The Green Party supports the bill’s intention of ultra-f...

Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS At the last election the Government blindly promised to invest in New Zealand’s telecommunications infrastructure—in particular, in ultra-fast broadband. It was a blind promise, because National had no ...

PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA Thank you for the opportunity to talk on this Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. We have heard from the Opposition the personal attacks ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE I move, That the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I ...

CLARE CURRAN ... slow broadband. It does not fill one with great confidence. Looking more and more like the big elephant in the room, Telecom remains a massive problem for the Government to solve. Labour supports this bill going to the select committee. We ...

DAVID CLENDON I am pleased to take what I would normally consider to be a short call on the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, but in comparison with some of the offerings I have ...

MICHAEL WOODHOUSE ... profile errant companies. Notice how, when the issue of tax cuts comes up, they quote the chief executive officer of Telecom. But what they do not mention is the plumbers, the builders, the start-up information technology companies, and the ...

CLARE CURRAN ... delivered. Several ways have been discussed by the industry about how to do that. One of them is through our national telecommunications company, Telecom, which is a competitive monopoly, and the other way involves asking whether the ...

DARIEN FENTON ... percent and are set to get worse. Rates have gone up by 6.4 percent. The price of groceries went up by 10.3 percent. Telecom has put up its rates, so the family phone costs more. Interest rates have gone up, so mortgages will be affected, and ...

Hon LIANNE DALZIEL ... on Monday by the representatives of Farmers Trading, TaxiCharge New Zealand, the New Zealand Taxi Federation, and Telecom. The questions are about those parties that are not contemplated to be covered by the legislation. All we need is a ...

Hon PANSY WONG ... get caught under the new legislation. That is the first question. The second question is whether organisations like Telecom, TaxiCharge, and the like have to be registered as financial advisers. At this stage, the Minister of Commerce would ...

KELVIN DAVIS ... off after this Budget, but they will be $11 a week worse off. Compare that with the tax cuts afforded to the head of Telecom, who used to get $60,000 a week after tax. My friends get $60,000 a year before tax. The head of Telecom will get $4,50...

DARIEN FENTON ... has never been an amalgamation of this size. The new Auckland Council will have greater assets than Fonterra and Telecom combined. It will be enormous. It is unimaginable. It will employ thousands of staff and represent 1.4 million people,...

STUART NASH ... men.” Why would wealthy men love this Budget? Let us see why. Under the Budget’s tax cuts, the chief executive of Telecom, Paul Reynolds, will get over $350,000 extra in the hand per year; the chief executive of Fonterra, Andrew Ferrier, ...

CAROL BEAUMONT ... executive officer of a large company, people will receive $178 more a week. Of course, the chief executive officer of Telecom will receive an extra $4,845.44 a week. I did not work out what that would get him at the supermarket, but obviously ...

JOHN BOSCAWEN ... scheme. I find it also interesting that Labour is constantly referring to Paul Reynolds, the chief executive of Telecom, and the impact that these tax reductions will have on his take-home pay. I suggest that another group of people we ...

Hon JIM ANDERTON ... New Zealanders will take home thousands of extra dollars a week compared with those on average incomes. People like Telecom’s chief executive officer, who earned $7 million last year, will get a tax cut of $6,608 per week. State sector chief ...

DAVID BENNETT ... the people from whom it has tried to get support in past years. Labour uses the jealousy technique when talking about Telecom chief executive officers. It uses the fear tactics on ordinary Kiwis out there who want to get jobs and want to work ...

KATRINA SHANKS ... to terminate or suspend someone’s account with an Internet service provider, an Internet service provider like Telecom or XTRA, if they broke the law and did some file sharing. I do not think people can accidentally file share—that is ...

Hon SIMON POWER ... provider” specifically for the new regime. This definition covers only traditional Internet service providers—like Telecom—that are technically capable of performing the evidence-matching and notice-sending requirements in the bill. ...

DARIEN FENTON ... want to mention, as I have in previous speeches about immigration, the Chorus workers who were employed by Telecom. They were mainly Filipino and they were brought here on work permits to do jobs we could not get anyone else to do. ...

Hon SHANE JONES ... organisations. Let me say that a host of those organisations are no longer New Zealand - owned entities. I point to Telecom, for example. Underlying the foolish opposition that speakers on the Government side of the House are serving up this ...

Hon PHIL GOFF ... but about his prime ministerial salary—the tax changes are worth $310 a week. Paul Reynolds, the chief executive of Telecom, will get on his basic salary—not his bonus, because I do not think that he will get a bonus this year—another $1,300 ...

PHIL TWYFORD ... a way as to put $500 into the pocket of the Prime Minister every week, and $2,500 into the pocket of Paul Reynolds at Telecom, but virtually nothing for anyone earning less than $48,000 a year. Why would a Government inflict that on New ...

CHRIS HIPKINS ... earn the most money. It is doing that so that John Key can get a big, fat tax cut and so that the chief executive of Telecom can get a big, fat tax cut. That is what this Government wants to do. It wants to increase the cost of day-to-day ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE ... a week in tax relief. But someone on John Key’s wage will get $509 in tax relief. The chief executive officer of Telecom will get $2,600 in tax relief. The equity test is absolutely beyond question. This policy fails. So why do it? Why ...

STUART NASH ... package, will have a top marginal tax rate of 21 percent. If they earn as much as the chief executive officer of Telecom, who, I think, ended up with a Christmas bonus in the form of a tax cut of around $400 per week—because he really ...

CHARLES CHAUVEL ... first place, as so ably pointed out, time and time again, by my colleague Grant Robertson. We have seen hundreds of Telecom service technicians and engineers laid off recently, because Telecom has been foolish or craven enough to try to ...

JOHN BOSCAWEN ... the feasibility of building a trans-Tasman telephone cable that would compete with the Southern Cross cable owned by Telecom. Just the very mention of Kordia considering the opening of a second cable was enough for Telecom to offer ...

Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS ... it should also be opened to competition. We can look at it this way. Every single monopoly, be it the post office, Telecom, or coal has always delivered more for less when it has been opened up to competition. Three things happened: prices ...

DARIEN FENTON ... and said I hoped that the Minister was keeping a watching brief on the workers who were brought here to work in the telecommunications industry. They were brought here under work permits, promised jobs, and told that this was a great place ...

SUE BRADFORD ... company is offering workers on a take-home pay of $10.39 to $12.14 an hour, a zero increase in wages and conditions. Telecom New Zealand is making hundreds of its line engineers redundant as it hands their jobs over to Visionstream, which ...

DARIEN FENTON ... in the rights and obligations of utility operators and corridor managers.” Starting with the amendments to the Telecommunications Act 2001, I cannot help but note the irony in having this bill go through its Committee stage today, when ...

CLARE CURRAN ... has a $900 a week housing allowance, Sir Roger Douglas gets free trips to visit his family in the UK, and while Telecom engineers have their jobs contracted out their CEO is handed a cool five big ones. That’s about $13,698 every single ...

PHIL TWYFORD ... The new super-city wraps up $28 billion worth of Aucklanders’ assets. That is more than the assets of Fonterra and Telecom combined. Let us take the new water company as an example. Until now its assets were scattered across eight councils. ...

Hon STEVEN JOYCE ... Cabinet is about to address. The other really important part is the rural broadband side and, related to that, the telecommunications service obligation, or TSO. Again, there is a range of issues. The first and, I think, most important one ...

Hon ANNETTE KING ... should give tax cuts to those who need them. Why would they want to give more to the chief executive officer of Telecom, who is already earning over a million dollars—

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN ... a bit more and working a bit more, trying to make their way in the world; it cuts taxes for the chief executive of Telecom. It produces a dumber society with slightly lower taxes, lower growth rates, lower productivity, and greater ...

Hon TONY RYALL ... sale of State assets when she was a senior Minister in the previous Labour Government? She is the Minister who sold Telecom, the Shipping Corporation, the Government Printing Office, and Government Computing Services. She can leave the ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... terms we are budgeting for a surplus of almost $5 billion. This cash surplus includes the revenue from the sale of Telecom and the Crown’s commercial forests.” That document is the Labour Government’s Budget in 1990 when Helen Clark was ...

Hon TREVOR MALLARD The “member for Telecom” has just become the “member for the road transport industry”. It is a very interesting transition. For most of his ...

Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON ... has actually put the spin exactly the wrong way around. He has said that National’s proposal is a huge subsidy to Telecom. Well, he is wrong, and he is wrong for this reason. The open access network we propose to roll out will give Telecom,...

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN ... his speech should be welcomed; it was the maiden speech from Mr Williamson this year—otherwise known as the “MP for Telecom”. He told us that the important thing for the National Party was not getting high-speed broadband to the farm and ...

LESLEY SOPER ... the next 4 years. In broadband there is an answer that is far better than National’s idiotic proposal of subsidising Telecom. There is more for science and research—in particular, $700 million for agricultural research, which Mr Key managed ...

Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE ... who is one of the many National members I will be thanking this evening. In respect of that last little story about Telecom, I cannot imagine a better demonstration of why the National Party has kangaroos loose in the top paddock. If Mr ...

MOANA MACKEY ... to rural and provincial New Zealand, than the National Party’s proposal, which is $1.5 billion to be delivered by Telecom. I doubt whether there is anyone in rural or provincial New Zealand who thinks that that has worked in the past and ...

CHARLES CHAUVEL ... broadband. After the effort put in by David Cunliffe and other hard-working Ministers in this Government to get the telecommunications sector right, we are finally in a situation where Telecom and the sector it has dominated are required to ...

R DOUG WOOLERTON ... subsidies to people who own our infrastructure. Likewise, we do not believe that $1.5 billion should be given to Telecom to upgrade broadband, as proposed by the National Party. If Telecom was doing the business as it promised this ...

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN ...oration">Roading and rail are crucial means of communication. So too, and of growing importance in a modern economy, is telecommunications.

Following the privatisation of Telecom, New Zealand’s performance in ...

Dr PITA SHARPLES ... of this privatisation and sale of New Zealand assets through the sale of workplaces like forestry, the railroad, and Telecom, which employed huge numbers of Māori, and the break-up and sale of many of the country’s freezing works. The ...

NANDOR TANCZOS ... profits.” That is vital. It is interesting to reflect, just as a little aside—and I am aware, of course, that telecommunications are regulated through other legislation—that the mindset behind the current legislation, which was ...

Hon JUDITH COLLINS ... there. Members might well ask how that happened. I have an answer for them. Not only did a Labour Government allow Telecom to put a cellphone tower inside Pāremoremo maximum security prison but it also allowed Vodafone to do the same. That ...

Hon SIMON POWER ... from memory of what was said at the Law and Order Committee, a very complex matter that involves both Vodafone and Telecom having agreements of understanding—or something like that—with the Department of Corrections. The other interesting ...

Hon JUDITH COLLINS ... allowed this to happen but also entered into signed contracts between the Department of Corrections, Vodafone, and Telecom to have cellphone towers placed inside Pāremoremo maximum security prison. That was one of the stunning results of my ...

Dr PITA SHARPLES ... We therefore welcome the arrangements that have gone on between the Department of Corrections, Vodafone, and Telecom to put in place a blocking technology to put unauthorised cellphones out of action. I am particularly pleased with ...

Hon PHIL GOFF ... throughout the country. The Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Economic Development have been working with Telecom and Vodafone to develop and trial these solutions. I have to say that the ongoing support of Telecom and Vodafone in ...

Rt Hon HELEN CLARK ... on promoting savings and sustainability, and on economic development through the major business tax package, telecommunications company regulation, infrastructure investment, and the tertiary education reforms. None of this could be ...

HONE HARAWIRA ... and sale of New Zealand’s assets, through the selling of huge Māori workplaces such as forests, the railroad, and Telecom, and through the break-up and sale of many of the country’s freezing works. The Government was also selling off ...

JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... how great overseas ownership of the New Zealand economy is. There must be some figures on that. We can look at Telecom and all the banks, at most of the forestry industry and forest processing industry, and at all of our metal smelting—an...

GORDON COPELAND ... to United Future. We believe in free and competitive markets, which is why we voted, for example, to bring an end to Telecom’s monopoly over the local loop for telecommunications services. It is obvious, I think, to anyone who has studied ...

Rt Hon HELEN CLARK ... on renewable sources of energy. On digital matters, last year’s far-reaching reform of regulatory settings for telecommunications has ushered in a new era of competition in the market. Broadband is already cheaper and faster. The new ...

JEANETTE FITZSIMONS ... with the effect on the national psyche of the Ōrewa speech. The year 2006 was when the Government moved to break up Telecom’s monopoly over broadband and local lines. The Greens really welcome the fact that that will free up the ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... could have complied with. No one would have objected to it. I point out to the Minister of Revenue the example of Telecom shareholders this year. They will pay tax on their dividends, even though if they were investing in one of these ...

NANDOR TANCZOS ... individuals who have engaged in the file sharing of music. Just today we have been debating legislation to end Telecom New Zealand’s monopoly of access to the local loop. Why on earth would we want to create a new realm of legislation ...

NANDOR TANCZOS ... the information technology portfolio, with movements around unbundling the local loop, the operational separation of Telecom, and those kinds of things. This is just one other example of useful movements in the information technology ....

CHRIS AUCHINVOLE ... the New Zealand Marketing Association, the Privacy Commissioner, Microsoft, the New Zealand Press Association, Telecom, Telstra, Vodafone, and a whole host of others all made submissions supporting this bill. It is significant that ...

HONE HARAWIRA ... few weeks the Māori Party has been raising issues about the outsourcing of Air New Zealand’s finance work to Fiji, Telecom’s shifting of its call centre work to the Philippines, and other developments that show how control is fast moving ...

PANSY WONG Despite the exciting speech delivered by the Minister, National remains very reluctant to support the Telecommunications Amendment Bill (No 2) and the Radiocommunications Amendment Bill (No 2). We do it only in order not to ...

HONE HARAWIRA ... It was a claim concerning the part of the electromagnetic spectrum known as the radio spectrum, which is used for telecommunications and information technology—the Internet, mobile phones, search and rescue operations, video links, ...

JOHN KEY ... of Communications, went on to a Bloomberg newswire—a wholesale news service—and started giving a directive about what Telecom’s dividend profile should be. This is the same man who was responsible for legislation that was being introduced to ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... as the legislation, if not greater. My colleague John Key mentioned the Government’s absolutely inept handling of the Telecom decisions—the decisions surrounding its decision to unbundle the local loop—and the profound impact that had on ...

CHRIS TREMAIN ... GST, the reduction of top marginal tax rates, and the privatisation of a number of New Zealand companies, including Telecom—which I will speak about later. She must also have been referring to the labour liberalisation laws that had created ...

CRAIG FOSS ... market was never the same again. We recently had an interesting example in New Zealand over the allegations around Telecom and the leaking of insider information in respect of what the Government proposed to do with the unbundling. ...

PANSY WONG ... when he was under investigation by the Securities Commission for speculating about the future dividend policy of Telecom, would be caught under this new extended definition of “information insider”. Now that his case has been closed, we ...

CHRIS TREMAIN ... to plot a new track for this country, with the introduction of GST, the privatisation of public assets such as Telecom and Air New Zealand, the cutting of agricultural subsidies and trade barriers, and the control of inflation. The ...

PANSY WONG ... to look at other types of savings, such as shares, they see what the Labour Government did to destroy their worth in Telecom.

PANSY WONG ... the situation when the Hon David Cunliffe, when giving an interview to the Bloomberg News agency, commented on Telecom’s future dividend policy being on a reduced scale. That would have got him into trouble if the Securities Legislation ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE I move, That the Telecommunications Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Today is a landmark day for telecommunications in New Zealand. It ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH This Telecommunications Amendment Bill that we will pass today is very important legislation. Therefore, we need to be very ...

SUE KEDGLEY I will speak just briefly to say how delighted the Green Party is at the passage of this Telecommunications Amendment Bill, because I have not been working on it in the Finance and Expenditure Committee. But our ...

RODNEY HIDE ... more regulations. I heard Dr Lockwood Smith say that this bill has removed the sword of Damocles from hanging over Telecom, when in fact after listening to that member and to Mr Doug Woolerton, and after watching the Minister assent to ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE I move, That the Telecommunications Amendment Bill be now read a second time. In speaking to the second reading of this bill let me first ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH The National Party will be voting for the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. I must say that working on the Finance and Expenditure Committee on this legislation has ...

SHANE JONES ... important nature in relation to the calendar of this House. It followed on from the Prime Minister identifying that telecommunications reform would comprise an important part of the work programme. So it is with particular pleasure that I ...

R DOUG WOOLERTON New Zealand First, likewise, supports the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. I am pleased to say that we have total agreement in the House, I think. I thank the ...

GORDON COPELAND ... is the greatest geographical distance from its major markets. Those realities simply mean that when it comes to telecommunications we have to be not at the tail but actually at the head of telecommunication development. We have to be ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... contribution during the second reading, which touched a cord with me as a rural resident. The matter relates to rural telecommunications users. At the Finance and Expenditure Committee it became a bit of a joke that on my computer at home I ...

R DOUG WOOLERTON ... pick and provide services in the big cities. It would do the cause of competitors more good if they could show Telecom, the Government, and consumers that their intentions are honourable, and that they intend, having set up businesses ...

Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE I move, That the Telecommunications Amendment Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be ...

Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU ... world leader. The reason is that so many other infrastructural issues need attending to. But National supports this Telecommunications Amendment Bill going to the select committee. It provides for local loop unbundling, which has been the ...

PANSY WONG ... regrets over the total inadequacy and incompetency of the handling of the announcement of the unbundling relating to Telecom, which led to a billion dollar write-off from shareholders’ wealth in that company. He went on to comment on the ...

Hon BRIAN DONNELLY New Zealand First, and particularly the Rt Hon Winston Peters, has long called for mechanisms to lower the costs of telecommunications in this country, including broadband communications and a wide range of things. We believe that this ...

TE URUROA FLAVELL ... subscriber line broadband services. I have to say from the start that this is new vocabulary. The terminology of telecommunications does not come easily to me. But I understand the value of communication. The bill amends the ...

NANDOR TANCZOS I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill on behalf of the Green Party. I begin by congratulating the Minister, David Cunliffe, on ...

GORDON COPELAND I rise on behalf of United Future to take a call on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. I want to begin by just talking about the principles that underlie competition, and ...

SHANE ARDERN National will support the Telecommunications Amendment Bill going to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I start by saying that this would have to ...

CHESTER BORROWS ... asset from a liability, and another choice is a bloke who, with a single slip of the tongue, knocked $200 million off Telecom. The third choice is the guy who, year on year, writes false information that he files as a company return, including ...

RODNEY HIDE ... New Zealand, the investment is safe and will not be pinched from them, as happened in respect of this Government and Telecom, when $3 billion of shareholder value was pinched. Mr Brown said we needed security of supply. That is true; that is ...

SIMON POWER ... as being hugely rewarding. For whom? It certainly has not been hugely rewarding for the people of Auckland. After the Telecom leak we will see the managed exit of David Cunliffe, and after the sad little Budget we saw last week—I see Trevor ...

Dr RICHARD WORTH ... days we have seen the disgraceful illustration of the Minister of Communications commenting about the prospects of Telecom and saying that that company might have to cut its dividend payout to fund increased investment. That statement was ...

JILL PETTIS ... funding—a $4.5 million return over 3 years. That is a 450 percent return, which is better than the return on Telecom shares. The Brethren are no slugs. They know that getting $4.5 million from National is far better than the return ...

Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU ... him, and that he might have grabbed the opportunity to say: “Right, there was a big balls-upon the great leak, the Telecom leak. There’s a great hole in this Budget, so why don’t we tell the public, in this Budget, about the appropriations ...

PANSY WONG ... to the Minister of Communications, the Hon David Cunliffe. He was not satisfied with losing the spotlight over Telecom, so he stepped right outside his ministerial boundary to comment on Telecom’s dividend policy, and that wiped another $...

PHIL HEATLEY ... and developments since—that is, the Hon David Cunliffe. He made the Budget announcement about the unbundling of Telecom. He was involved in that and he pushed it along a bit more by making comments that affected the sharemarket after ....

Hon PETER DUNNE ... be encouraged to use buses, what on earth they think buses travel on to get people to and from work. Then we have the Telecom unbundling, which no one has yet come out against. The point I am making about those pillars is that they shape the ...

RODNEY HIDE ... of something owned by other people. Then what did the Prime Minister follow that up with? She is going to split Telecom into two, because she is such a wow of a business person. And then we had David Cunliffe, the Minister of ...

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN ... for action in relation to economic transformation is infrastructure. The Government’s announcements two weeks ago on telecommunications included unbundling the local loop, provision for naked DSL, removing the upstream limit on bitstream ...

CRAIG FOSS I seek leave to table a document that shows the collapse in Telecom’s share price since Cabinet started leaking and the Minister of Communications started speaking.

Hon BILL ENGLISH ... he likes about those issues, but he needs to consider that this Budget will be overshadowed by the fracas around the Telecom leak and, now, David Cunliffe, the Minister of Communications, being subject to a Securities Commission ....

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... tomorrow. Dr Michael Cullen may also explain why his New Zealand Superannuation Fund has been the biggest seller of Telecom shares in recent times. Something has a fairly bad odour about it there; we cannot help but wonder whether some of ...

CRAIG FOSS ... since Cabinet started leaking and the Minister of Communications started speaking. For those who have invested in Telecom over the past few months, $2.14 per share has been lost. Another number is $200 million, which is the amount that was ...

Hon BRIAN DONNELLY ... One of the points that Opposition members have been making is that because of this leak $1.8 billion was wiped off Telecom’s share value. In fact, the $1.8 billion would have been wiped off the moment that Dr Cullen announced on Thursday ...

Hon BILL ENGLISH ... did an interview yesterday—a wide-ranging interview, we are told, and a long one—in which he made comments regarding Telecom’s dividend and investment policy. Those comments were broadcast on the Bloomberg News wire, which is a subscriber-only...

Hon PETER DUNNE ... the most important aspect of the case, and that is the fact that nearly $2 billion of shareholders’ investments in Telecom was wiped by the premature release of the announcement, and associated circumstances. Many, many investors in this ...

PHIL HEATLEY I would like to contribute to Part 1, which amends the Telecommunications Act, and particularly clause 4, “Expiry of designated services and specified services”. I must say it is ...

PANSY WONG ... technical bill actually reveals some major problems with regard to the Labour Government’s lack of progress in the telecommunications and energy sectors, and in other infrastructure areas. The reason for the lack of progress in all those ...

Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU ... it is totally committed to that aim. My colleague Pansy Wong has already quoted Paul Swain when he spoke to the Telecommunications Bill in 2001. Let us face it, although this is the Communications Legislation Bill, we are all very ...

PHIL HEATLEY ... stage, and we will hear more about that in the next stage of the debate. First of all, Part 1 will amend the Telecommunications Act 2001 by extending by 2 years—that is, roughly, to December 2008, so it will be a little more than 2 ...

Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE ... environment. In view of Mr Williamson’s comments, I would say that the National Party has a problem with this telecommunications bill, and with other legislation that will soon come forth from this Parliament. It is called a lack of ...

NANDOR TANCZOS ... put that within the context of the very real commitment the Green Party has to New Zealand developing a world-class telecommunications system. That relates to things like broadband, and the steps the Minister of Communications has taken to ...

HONE HARAWIRA ... and culture. Being able to communicate well should be the focus of this bill. The 2000 ministerial inquiry into telecommunications found that there is a risk that differing capacities to participate in the information economy can create, ...

GORDON COPELAND ... sectors. That statement, of course, is self-evidently true if we want to keep moving New Zealand communications—telecommunications and radiocommunications—into the modern world. But I want to mention that I would like the select ...

CRAIG FOSS ... interesting phrase in the bill. It talks about inappropriate receivers, and perhaps that can be applied to someone in Telecom surrounding this. But because of the way this leak has been dealt to, $1.5 billion has been knocked off the share ...

Hon STEVE MAHAREY ... the leader? Gerry Brownlee stood behind Bill English out on the forecourt, while Bill English led the charge on the Telecom leak. Bill English was there, with big Gerry right behind him—as if Bill was the leader. How cruel and how cutting ...

GERRY BROWNLEE ... constitutes the aspect of “importance” when it comes to snap debates. Given the way in which the issue around the Telecom leak has progressed over the last number of days, I think it would be helpful for us to know what you would consider ...

Hon BILL ENGLISH ... to the speaking times of a snap debate, the matter of the leak of a commercially sensitive Budget document regarding Telecom New Zealand.

GERRY BROWNLEE ...—noting the long list of work that the House appears to have before it—whether, following the staggering success of the Telecom leak, the Government is simply going to post the Budget on the Internet, to save the House spending a lot of time ...

Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON ... actions of a leaked document and by officials running round and Ministers releasing stuff, so that by this morning Telecom’s share price dropped below the $5 mark. I believe that is the biggest ever implication I have seen from such an ...

SUE KEDGLEY ... The fact is that although there are some outstanding examples of workplaces that do introduce flexible hours, such as Telecom and Treasury, most employees do not have them in their workplaces. So we need legislation that ensures that all ...

Hon MARK GOSCHE ... to learn something from the other industries that came along and gave us a much better picture of what could be done. Telecom made a good submission and outlined, as did other organisations, how it worked with its workforce to provide flexible ...

Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH ... people have dared to build houses on the other side of that bypass, it will not build them another one. Imagine if Telecom had that attitude. I invite members to think back to the telephones of 50 years ago. In my patch we had party lines. ...

KEITH LOCKE ... foresee at present. In New Zealand, we have already found that we are hamstrung in the information technology area by Telecom, which has a monopoly over the local copper wire loop. Under the agreement and the whole GATS approach that New ...

NANDOR TANCZOS ... unlikely. There is one very simple reason in my view why it is unlikely, and that is because of the monopoly that Telecom currently holds over our information and communications technology infrastructure. That is my opinion, and that is ...

MOANA MACKEY ... campaign with my mother, and David Lange came to help out. He went out to my old intermediate school and talked about Telecom New Zealand. One of the students asked him whether he had met Spot, the Telecom dog. David Lange replied, to a hall ...