Auckland, Wellington: 16 February 2011

Today the government has released its Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) relating to the Telecommunications Amendment Bill (TAB). The SOP was supposed to focus on providing the legislative framework for any future structural separation of Telecom, however the SOP goes much further and in effect re-writes the entire Telco Act as it stands today.

Submissions on the TAB are due in to the select committee by the end of next week.

TUANZ and InternetNZ believe the new bill and SOP are so detailed that any serious review of the proposed legislation will require more time and so respectfully request an extension to the deadline.

TUANZ Chief Executive Paul Brislen says the wealth of detail will take time to work through.

“The SOP is, in effect, an entirely new framework for the industry and goes far beyond separating Telecom’s business in two. We want to understand what’s being proposed so we can make submissions that help deliver as good a model as possible.”

InternetNZ Chief Executive Vikram Kumar is also concerned.

“If the Government the Select Committee genuinely want good quality feedback, they have to allow time for it to be developed.

“Two hundred pages of complex, detailed material have been released today. It will take more than ten days for us and for the industry to understand all the implications.

“We ask for the Select Committee to allow an extra fortnight for scrutiny of the Government’s proposals, and we ask them to confirm a hopefully revised submission date as soon as they possibly can,” says Vikram Kumar.

Both parties will be contacting the select committee and the Minister to discuss the timing of submissions.

ENDS

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