Concern at Govt speed to push through telco bill

Tuesday 15th March 2011 1 Comment

Telcos and consumer representatives are calling for more time to present submissions on a bill dealing with Telecom's possible split and the rollout of the Government's Ultrafast Broadband plan.

The group wants a two to three-week extension to the start of oral presentations on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, and an extension to the time given industry and consumer groups to appear before Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee.

Chief executives from the Telecommunications Users Association, TelstraClear, Vodafone, 2-Degrees, InternetNZ and Kordia said they were each been allocated 10 minutes to discuss 124 pages of legislation.

Submissions closed on Friday, and hearings were due to begin tomorrow, meaning committee members had just three working days to digest the hundreds of pages submitted by interested parties, Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said.

The speed at which the Government was trying to push through the bill was concerning.

"Frankly, for a bill which has far-reaching implications for New Zealand's future in the digital age, plus the fact that $1.35 billion of taxpayer money is involved, we should all be worried about democratic process in this country," Brislen said.

There had been little or no consultation before the select committee process, and parties had found out about policy changes for the first time when they appeared in the bill.

Labour also strongly opposed the short time allocated to hear submissions, despite the "complex and troublesome" bill not being required to return to Parliament before June.

"Accordingly, Labour has no confidence in the ability of the select committee process to address the key issues in the bill," Labour's finance spokesman, David Cunliffe, said.

"It is now clear that the Government intends to rush the bill through and the select committee process is merely for show."

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 16 March 2011 at 9:31 am Brian said:

This fiasco of decision making has been going on since 2007. No wonder govt can,t run the country as a business; which it is.Procrastination rules