Workers' Party

Broadband

While New Zealand lumbers towards speeds of 10-20 megabits per second across old copper wires, countries at the top of the OECD are targeting speeds between 100 megabits per second and one gigabit per second across fibre access.

1 - Using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is irrelevant and 10 is critical; please rate the importance of an Internet-enabled digital future to New Zealand’s society and economy?

8 - Technological improvements in the workplace can help bring about a shorter working week, a core policy of the Workers Party. Outside the workplace, broadband access helps society by making a vast amount of information available to the average person.

2 - Should the investment model for rolling out fibre access be private sector or public private partnership, and what is the appropriate role for government, both central and local?

Telecommunications infrastructure should be publicly owned and run as a service rather than a for-profit business. The role of government would be to oversee that infrastructure is properly maintained and service is of a high standard.

3 - Do you consider the existing international connectivity to be a bottleneck? If yes, what options would you pursue to deal with this?

The Workers Party would investigate options such as satellite connectivity and more undersea cables to improve the international bottleneck.

Infrastructure

Passive infrastructure, such as ducting and laying the fibre cable itself, can account for up to 70 percent of fibre access deployment costs.

4 - What policies would you support that would encourage co-investment and/or coordination in laying fibre cables?

Under public ownership laying fibre cables could be coordinated by having a central plan for the building of the network, this would be far more efficient than several private organisations all laying their own cables.

5 - Would you support requirements on duct access, sharing of fibre access inside buildings, and requirements to install fibre in new buildings?

New buildings should be equipped to connect to fibre networks. For a fee private companies could use the public network.

Digital Divide

The term ‘Digital Divide’ refers to the gap between those with effective access to digital and information technology and those without. The recent World Internet Project survey said that Digital Divide issues in New Zealand are driven by household income and location. The more rural you are, and the poorer you are, the less likely you are to have good access to the Internet.

7 - How will your party assist the poor in New Zealand to get decent access to computers and the Internet, and what will your party do to ensure every school, library and polytechnic has fibre access?

As a public service, Internet access could be at a reasonable cost to households. Wireless mesh networks in densely populated areas would also improve access. There should be funding to equip schools, libraries and polytechnics with the technology needed to access fibre networks.

8 - The rural sector is often called the engine room of our economy – how will you improve rural connectivity and access to high-speed broadband?

Fund the installation of fibre in rural areas, or satellite access where this is not feasible.

Copyright

Copyright law lets people benefit economically from their creative work. It should balance the rights of individual users with those of the copyright holders but in recent times significant concerns have arisen that the balance has shifted towards copyright holders as society grapples with the implications of digital media.

9 - How far should Government go to protect the interests of copyright owners against the rights of citizens and do you think our copyright laws are being unduly influenced by the US entertainment industries?

New Zealand's Copyright has been compared to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, this is not a good thing. Government should focus on user rights while protecting content creators.

We would also support shortening the period it takes for works to enter the public domain, and fund the promotion of Creative Commons, Free Software and other alternatives to traditional copyright, including in state broadcasting.

10 - As a result of industry pressure, the Government has delayed Section 92A of the amended Copyright Act, which will require ISPs to terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers. What is your position on s92A and how would you resolve the issues?

The Workers Party would repeal Section 92A, and amend copyright legislation to give more rights to end users of content.

11 - Will you commit to a balanced approach to copyright reform that reflects the views of all New Zealanders by pledging: to respect the rights of creators and consumers; to not support law change that undermines or weakens copyright user rights; and to fully consult with New Zealanders before introducing law changes or signing international treaties that would impact copyright user rights?

Yes.

12 - Should there be a first-principles review of New Zealand’s Copyright Law and, if so, when would you begin this work?

Yes. We would do this as soon as possible.

Cybersafety

Connection to the Internet exposes the public of all ages to inappropriate material, online predators, and net nasties such as viruses, worms, Trojans and malicious software.

13 - Last election there were pledges of 1,000 more cops on the street. What about online? How many more cops do we need in cyberspace? And will you increase the capability of the Police E-crime Lab, Internal Affairs Censorship and Anti-Spam Units, Customs, and the Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection?

The Workers Party would ensure Internet users are protected from spam and malicious software though investing in preventative technologies. We would hesitate to implement anything in cyberspace that could be used by the state for censorship or privacy violations.

14 - Does NZ need to establish an NZCERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and if yes, what role should Government play in the establishment, operation and funding of an NZCERT?

This is certainly an idea we would look into.

Privacy

The UK Government is planning to spend £12 billion on a database to monitor and store all its citizens’ Internet browsing, emails and phone calls, in the face of huge concerns globally about privacy breaches surrounding Government and corporate data.

15 - What is your party’s view of the UK approach? Are you in favour of more, or less, intrusive actions by Government and enforcement agencies? What will your party do to ensure the privacy of each individual’s identity and information online?

As stated above, the Workers Party opposes measures that would affect privacy rights or civil liberties. We would ensure peoples privacy though keeping state intervention in cyberspace to a minimum. We would also restrict employers monitoring employees Internet use, at work and outside it, to prevent repeats of the situations where people have lost jobs after critical comments on blogs and social networking sites.

IPv6

The Internet is currently reliant on IPv4 as the network layer IP addressing protocol. The entire IPv4 address space amounts to around 4 billion addresses available globally and exhaustion of this address space is likely to occur within the next two years.

Governments are increasingly concerned with the lethargy of conversion to IPv6, the next generation of IP addressing, and the USA and Australian Governments are showing determination to migrate, particularly in the area of their Defence Forces.

16 - What steps do you intend taking to accelerate the deployment of networks using IPv6 in New Zealand, particularly inside Government?

We would invest in migration to IPv6 as soon as it becomes possible.

Convergence

The Internet and traditional broadcast media are converging and the Government is reviewing broadcasting and content regulation. The boundaries are breaking down between digital and analogue worlds, across business models, delivery channels and access devices and fundamental differences between traditional broadcast and the Internet need to be addressed.

17 - How will your party address the issues of regulation of content in New Zealand as content becomes more and more available online and outside of traditionally regulated broadcasting channels?

As stated in answers to previous questions, the Workers Party would promote alternatives to traditional copyright and protect the public domain. We would keep regulation to a minimum to protect end user rights to use content, as well as the privacy of users.

18 - Do we need a converged regulator of broadcasting and telecommunications, and if so, should there be two such converged regulators, one for content and the other for infrastructure?

This is something we would look into.

19 - How do you see the increasing delivery of media content over the Internet affecting the way content creation is funded by Government?

With New Zealand-made content now able to be made for niche audiences locally and internationally, it becomes difficult to allocate funding. However the workers party would allow for more user generated content on the Internet though providing people with more leisure time and income to use at their will.