4. SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) Link to this
to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology
What has been the reaction of regional stakeholders to the rural broadband scheme?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Communications and Information Technology) Link to this
Staff from the Ministry of Economic Development have been travelling up and down the country informing rural communities about how the Rural Broadband Initiative will benefit them. Throughout the country they have received extremely positive feedback, as people understand the exciting potential that faster broadband can bring to their communities. For example, the Timaru Herald proclaimed: “Rural schools in South Canterbury are set to benefit from world-class internet speeds …”; the Hawke’s Bay Today celebrated: “residents to reap ultra fast perks”; and of particular interest to the member will be the Taranaki Daily News, which stated: “Rural Taranaki internet speeds are about to improve tenfold as the Government gets set to roll out its $500 million Rural Broadband Initiative next month.”
How will the expected passage of the Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill this afternoon provide better broadband services to rural communities?
Those members in this House who understand that providing better internet speeds will be a massive economic enabler for rural communities, and those members who recognise that 230,000 households on dial-up in 2011 is just not good enough, will be supporting the bill’s third reading this afternoon, as we correct the mistakes of the previous Government. The bill provides for the telecommunications development levy to be invested in 3,100 kilometres of new fibre into rural areas, and an extra 154 cellphone towers. When completed, 98 percent of New Zealanders will have access to broadband services of 5 megabits per second or more, and 98 percent of schools will have an ultra-fast broadband connection, as well.
Clare CurranHow does he respond to the hundreds of schools and dozens of mayors, some of whom are now writing to me to express their concern about the zone 3 schools that have been left out of both the urban and the rural broadband initiatives that are now being subjected to an uncosted tender process next year?
Mr SPEAKERCan I ask the House to be a bit more reasonable on the interjection level. I do not know whether the Minister even got to hear that.
As I have tried to point out to the member previously, there is no delay for those schools. They will, in fact, be connected. There is somebody writing to some schools, though, scaremongering that those schools will not be connected, and I wonder whether the member might know who it is, because it is signed by one Clare Curran.
I seek leave to table a letter dated 17 June from Linton Camp School to the Hon Anne Tolley in response to her letter, expressing concern that it had been left out of the broadband scheme although the two schools on either side of it had not been.