Q + A
Panel Discussion 1
Hosted by SUSAN WOOD
In response to Steven Joyce Interview
SUSANWelcome to the panel today. Political scientist Dr Claire Robinson from Massey University, great to have you on with us
this year.
DR CLAIRE ROBINSON – Political Scientist
Oh, thank you, finally.
SUSANOne of our regulars, Matt McCarten, Unite Union. And Fran O’Sullivan, New Zealand Herald columnist, also a regular. I’ve
just got to ask this question – who thinks we’re going to win this Cup? Because my nerves are frayed, like the rest of
the country.
MATT McCARTEN – National Secretary, Unite Union
They’ll romp home. Romp home.
SUSANWell-known sailing commentator – Matt McCarten.
MATTYes. Yes, I’ve following it for the last two races, and I think it’s in the bag.
SUSANWe’ll have the port lead in, which is the left lead in, from you, and we’ll win it, right?
MATTYeah.
SUSANAre you ladies feeling as confident?
CLAIREThis is just— This is like the Rugby World Cup jinx thing that’s going through New Zealand at the moment. I think, you
know, we lost the Rugby World Cup constantly, and people started getting really worried that because they were
overconfident, that we would lose, and I think that that’s exactly what we’re seeing now. People are thinking, ‘Ooh, we
were confident last week, and now we’re not, and so we don’t want to say anything.’
MATTWe’re going to have to ask all the Kiwis on the Oracle boat to get off so we can win.
SUSANYeah, well, that would help.
MATTThere’s one American on their boat. Half of them are New Zealanders.
CLAIREYeah, exactly.
SUSANIn an economic sense, Fran, how do you commercialise— and let’s be optimistic here and hope that the Cup does come back
to New Zealand, how do you commercialise it in a longer-term sense? Because it’s hard to do. You think about Olympics,
Sydney, yes, you get the infrastructure, the roading, but it’s very very hard to get a long-term benefit from it, isn’t
it?
FRAN O’SULLIVAN – NZ Herald Columnist
Yeah, I guess so, but in many respects, for our boatbuilding industry, for our technologies, what we do in the computer
space, digital, all around this, New Zealanders have come up with some terrific innovations which have been picked up by
other boat owners, including, you know, making— building the boat for Larry Ellison. So in that sense, I think I think
there’s— you know, it still puts New Zealand up there, right at the sharp end.
SUSANSo those relationships get created. You, Claire, though, would like to see the Government take a bit more of a lead,
perhaps?
CLAIREYeah, I think that often the tendency is to say— to throw the money at the syndicate and say, ‘You go off and do it,’
but, actually, if the Government’s being really strategic, it would say, ‘Yes, in terms of the boatbuilding industry,
we’re going to get some return, in terms of tourism, but what more can we do? What more can we leverage off this event?’
So I think, yeah, putting some money— strategically money in and resources into developing more of the high-tech, more
of the design-led industries associated with the America’s Cup so that when the investors are looking, when the
investors are coming, then we can really give them something to take away, apart from the experience.
MATTWe might like to change the name of the boat as well and not call it old Emirates. We’d call it Taxpayer Funded. Old
Team—
CLAIREWell, there’s a logo on it.
MATTThere’s 36 million bucks on there already.
SUSANBut that’s the trouble with this thing – it’s such an expensive campaign. If we could shift gear and get on to Chorus?
Fran, we heard Minister Steven Joyce talking about that and a whole lot of misinformation, he says, but the charge is –
is this just another example of corporate welfare from this government?
FRANWell, it’s an interesting topic, really, because the Government clearly has put a lot of taxpayers’ money out there
behind ultrafast broadband, and, of course, Chorus has got the lion’s share of that to do, you know, the guts of the
backbone in this country. I think it’ll end up as a compromise. It won’t be quite so much coming off the monthly
broadband— sorry, copper rental that people are currently paying. And somewhere in the middle, there’s a threshold. But
I do think the campaign is barking mad as well. I mean, there is not a tax—
MATTBut it’s effective.
FRANWell, no, no, no, not because it’s effective. You’re part of it.
MATTI’m against your side, absolutely. Come on, this is—
FRANI would—
MATTIf a Labour government was doing this, Fran and all her mates would be screaming about picking winners, the status
involving. One billion bucks to an Australian-owned contractor, you know, and then they say, ‘Oh, the price is higher
than we thought,’ and the Cabinet goes, ‘We’ll set the price for you so you can and so we can ship another 600 million
across.’
FRANI think there’s a lot of debate over the actual covert report, and we’re starting to see people like Ross Patterson, the
previous telecoms commissioner, coming out. There’s a long way to go in this one, and it’s very useful for certain PR
operators to round up the usual suspects—
MATTThere is a poll tax on every internet user in this country of 12 bucks a month to subside this private enterprise—
SUSANWhatever the facts, information, misinformation – it’s confusing a) for punters to follow, but, politically, it could be
quite damaging for the Government, because you have the perception – Tiwai Point – is this just another example of, you
know, looking after bigger business?
CLAIREIt is, too. But I think that the fundamental issue with this is that price isn’t going to drive behaviour, so the debate
seems to have skewed round to, you know, if copper is cheaper, then people will move to copper. Actually, people are
more than prepared to pay for quality and speed if it’s there, so, really, it’s up to the ultrafast broadband to prove
that it is a good performer. You know, if we were really worried about price, we’d still be just all using landlines and
dial-up, you know, and we don’t. We really— So we do buy into really good quality. People pay a lot for SKY; it’s much
cheaper just to watch free-to-air TV. So I think that people, you know, once they do get to try…
SUSANWell, that’s the trouble. Once it comes to a street near you, which is taking—
CLAIREYes, and when is that?
SUSANWell, exactly. I rang the other day. It’s June next year, which is not very helpful.
CLAIREYeah, ridiculous.
SUSANMm.
MATTWell, where my office is, it’s not going to be till 2017, and that’s in a business part of—
CLAIRESo I think that is the bigger issue, you know, the slowness of the rollout.
MATTWell, that’s the free market at work, you see, and it doesn’t work. They should just cut out the middle man and just do
it themselves, because that’s what they’re doing—
FRANJust put it in themselves.
MATTThey might as well do it themselves instead of making money for your mates.
FRANWhat do you mean by mates?
MATTBased in Australia.
SUSANA lovely note to leave our panel.
FRANWhat?
MATTGo, Kiwis.
FRANVodafone are going to, actually, be a beneficiary, not Chorus.
ENDS