NZ govt needs to drink its tea quickly

Anyone who follows New Zealand politics and history will know that the term "having a cup of tea" stems from former Labour Prime Minister David Lange taking a break from the radical freemarket economic reforms of the 1980s.

But Lange and his government had more than a cup of tea. They sat back and never returned to the job in hand, leaving the reform half-finished, with economic effects that persist to this day.

Now, we hear calls for the New Zealand Government to have a similar "cup of tea" concerning its NZ$1.5 billion Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) Initiative and the NZ$300 million Rural Broadband Initiative.

There are people complaining that the government is rushing things, especially as matters have gotten extremely complicated with Telecom NZ splitting up to take part in the project. Telecom and Vodafone are also continuing to get stick for grabbing the rural work, with people concerned about competition and government transparency.

Telstra's Alan Freeth also noted that it was unfair that submitters to the government's latest telecom Bill relating to the UFB initiative only get 10 minutes to put their case before the parliamentary select committee this week, just days after submissions closed.

In a submission to a government Bill relating to the UFB initiative, the Telecom Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) has said that a 10-year "regulatory holiday" for UFB operators allows scope for monopolistic exploitation from an all-too-dominant Telecom, which remains set to gain the bulk of the broadband work. There is also a lack of transparency concerning how Crown Fibre Holdings, the government-created entity to deliver the projects, is awarding the various contracts.

TUANZ CEO Paul Brislen added that the current telco Bill defies international best practice and "rushing" the legislation means the country will miss out on obtaining the maximum benefits from such a "once in a generation" opportunity.

The opposition Labour Party concurs; ICT spokesperson Clare Curran has said that Crown Fibre Holdings has a unique conflict of interest by acting as investor, participant and regulator of the UFB.

Curran also believes there are signs that some of the UFB project is unravelling.

"Fibre roll-out in New Zealand has been frozen for two years while [ICT Minister Steven Joyce] created a complex, secretive structure which has little public accountability," Curran said.

So, by all means, the government could well have a "cup of tea" to let the various parties air their views and sort out some of these complaints. New Zealand likes to work on consensus and there has been much consensus on the country's own National Broadband Network.

But as Curran noted, the broadband initiative has dragged on for two years, and in that time, as she said herself, fibre roll-out in New Zealand "has been frozen".

This is why any "tea break" must be short, weeks maybe. Time has dragged on long enough and the longer it does so, the more damage will be done economically while businesses wait for government to act.

Minister Joyce will be well aware of the problems caused by any further delay. He will be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Joyce also has an electoral timetable to consider.

He and his government must face the voters by November and they will want to say with confidence "job done" when it comes to broadband. They won't want to have things left half-finished or up in the air.

So perhaps instead of a cup of tea, it should be a short black.