Sharemarket Over-Reacting To Telecom Changes - Cullen Warns
Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today that the sharemarket seemed to be over-reacting to possible regulatory
changes in the telecommunications sector.
He was referring to the recent loss of value on Telecom shares.
Dr Cullen said Communications Minister Paul Swain had made it very clear that the recommendations of the
Telecommunications Inquiry were just that and by no means represented the final views the Government would adopt.
"In particular Mr Swain has always been sceptical about the value of industry specific regulation, rather preferring to
look at using the Commerce Commission as a vehicle for any regulatory changes which may be approved.
"There seems to be some perception the Government is likely to put in place some form of heavy handed regime in this
area.
"A conclusion the markets ought to be drawing from the electricity decisions announced this week is that the present
Government does not adopt unnecessarily heavy regulatory approaches and it is very unlikely we would do so with respect
to telecommunications," Dr Cullen said.