Minutes of Public Policy Committee - 2 October 2008

Present: Wellington: David Farrar (Chair), Jordan Carter (Staff), Richard Wood (Staff), Keith Davidson (Staff), Chris Streatfield. Auckland or on phone: Simon Riley, Rick Shera, Michael Wallmannsberger. Jane Hindle (TUANZ).

Apologies: Judy Speight, early departure for David Farrar.

Opened: 3.05pm

1.                  Minutes of Last Meeting – 4 September 2008

Minutes of last meeting adopted as a true and accurate record.

2.                  Action Points / Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes

Privacy, Legal Jurisdiciton to arise again post-election.

Meeting with Maurice – was useful and key salient point was that the number one thing is they are not committed to fibreco model. They are saying here is $1.5 billion and have identified what they want to achieve, and want to hear the best way to do it and will have 12 months to decide that. Also a useful discussion on copyright and Maurice is not happy with the Copyright law.

3.                  Briefing to the Incoming Government                                       

This would need to be finished by the Election Day, by 7 November, with only tweaking afterwards. We want it to be one of the first documents to hit a Minister. It would need to be signed off by the Executive Board. 1st draft to PPC and EB by 29 October.

It would be a high level summary – short and tightly written.  Each issue should be backed by longer summary sheets. Should highlight the policy challenges, for example TSO and what the challenges are around that.

Should be a lot of existing material to base it on. And look at international trends. Should include recommendations.

Headlines –

·         International Arena, IPv6, ICANN,

·         Broadband,

·         Copyright Act, I.P.

·         Content

·         Regulatory Framework

·         IP Interconnect/Peering

·         TCF/NAD/ENUM

·         “The State of the Industry”

·         DDC/DDF/DigStrat

·         Convergence

4.                  NGN Consultation

We didn’t commission Michael Wigley to produce this until late in the piece. The draft has gone to the EB and review group and will be handed in tomorrow. We discussed with TUANZ about working with them and this came down in the end to meeting to discuss the submissions towards the end of the timeframe. But we got an extension and that meant the cooperation didn’t happen.

We’ve proposed the Commission initiate a broadband stakeholders group, similar to that in the UK. This would provide neutral funding for quality input rather than the Government relying on InternetNZ and TUANZ.

Simon discussed whether a BSG would be consulting or advice. Normal consultation process puts too much overhead on organisations such as ours.

Keith noted that the incumbent always has a large team for their view and the rest of the industry doesn’t. Also we need to be careful what we suggest.

The DDC might take this on as a workstream but it’s not necessarily the ideal body.

5.                  Election Year Questionnaire

Survey out by end of next week

AP. Put together draft questionnaire and put out to PPC and EB board and council and members by Monday October 6.

AP. Send questionnaire out to political parties by Friday October 10.

6.                  Copyright Update

There is a four month extension to section 92A. There is a meeting between industry and David Cunliffe and Judith Tizard on Monday.

The issue has been elevated by the publicity. Having the six organisations on board was good.

At the Digital Development Forum there was a large turnout from creative industries and in the end there was consensus to start to do some positive thinking about a new copyright framework.

We met with National’s Chris Finlayson on Copyright and his view is that the whole of the Copyright Law is in need of a complete review. The process of the amendment was completely flawed and was Parliament at its worst. We apprised him of international work in this area and Rick sent him links.

If Executive Board agree we could foster a wider coalition on copyright. Also a conference on Copyright could be brought together in mid-February.

There was an announcement on the broadcasting review and consultations continue.

David initiated discussion about this being the last PubPol meeting and the history of the committee and its predecessors. Thanks to those who have helped out and hung in there.

7.                  Updates/Issues:

a.       Network Strategies Project Update

Released the stage 1 report. David noted he was pleased with the report and it shows we chose the right group. This was agreed by Chris and Jordan. We are expecting final report before election.

b.       Privacy issues paper

On hold till after election.

c.  Election Debate

Congrats to Richard on the work to pull it together. MPs seemed to like it.  Online blogs were positive. Top Shelf were good to work with.

AP. Publish chat log

AP. Arrange transcript    

8.                  Any Other Business

NAD – Keith noted there is a proposal to do a submission on NAD and ENUM. He is to meet with Michael Wigley to flesh out this proposal.

Cyberlaw renewal – the Exec Board agreed we’d be silly to terminate at end of year 3 so should do anything in our power to provide continuity in next 12 months.

Meeting Closed:  3.55                       

Date of next meeting:         

This is expected to be the final meeting of the Public Policy Committee but if this is deferred by Executive Board we’ll have another on Thursday 13 November 2008 at 3pm.

Signed as a true and correct record:

…………………………………………………

David Farrar, Member, Chair