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16 June 2006

Report of the Public Policy Committee to Council on 16 June 2006.

Version 1.0 – 10 June 2006
For: Council on 17 June 2006
Status: Public

The Committee has met three times since the last Council meeting. Most of the focus continues to be the telecommunications regulatory review, and the Government’s announcements in May have been warmly welcomed.

  1. Broadband Campaign

    1. TUANZ Telecommunications Day

      1. This was well attended by INZ. General consensus is that the OECD presentation was most useful.

      2. Also a desire to hold Telecom’s actions against the commitment given by their CEO at the conference.

    2. OECD Broadband Report

      1. This was released in late May and generated several stories in the print media, plus a number of radio interviews.

      2. Key emphasis has been on almost all NZ plans having data caps.

      3. A decision to be made later this year on whether the report should be done regularly, such as annually, and if so what criteria should be changed, and review the weightings (which were not decided by INZ)

      4. Overall a high level of satisfaction with the investment to have a comprehensive comparison

    3. Paul Budde session

      1. A session with Paul Budde, and some members of ISPANZ, was held the day before the TUANZ Conference

      2. There were some useful outcomes from it, and the PPC discussed how to make it more targeted in future

    4. Meeting with Officials

      1. The PPC noted that the staff have had a number of meetings with officials, and close liasions continues

    5. Next Steps

      1. The Chair and staff presented to the PPC a paper on likely work related to telecommunications and broadband issues for the rest of the year.

      2. It was noted $31,000 has been spent so far this financial year

      3. The PPC agreed that INZ should continue to be actively involved in this area, and that the job did not just finish with the Government’s decision

      4. The Executive Director advised that he proposes to engage an extra staff person, on a fixed term contract, to work with existing staff on the telecommunications policy work. ISPANZ has agreed to fund a portion of the salary also. The PPC supported the ED’s proposal.

      5. Possible expenditure for 2006/07 was identified as

        1. Contract Staff $45,000

        2. Select Cmte sub on legislation $10,000

        3. Select Cmte sub on separation $10,000

        4. Lobbying $1,000

        5. Liasion with stakeholders $12,000

        6. International Experts $25,000

        7. Commerce Commission Processes $30,000

        8. Expenses to Date $31,000

      6. If all activity occurred, this would total $175,000. It is estimated $145,000 could be funded from existing budget lines and only up to $30,000 might need to be applied for from the Projects Fund.

      7. Expenditure will only occur on provisions of individual business cases, and the figures above are provided as an indicator at this stage.

    6. Telco 7 Conference

      1. The PPC Chair and the Research and Policy Officer are attending this in Auckland on 28 and 29 June

  2. Effect of Internet on Judicial Supression Orders

    1. Once a new Solicitor-General has been appointed, it is planned to discuss the merits of holding a seminar on this issue with the media, legal and Internet communities

  3. Parliamentary Internet Caucus

    1. Still awaiting a suitable time for launch

  4. Internet Code of Practice

    1. The ED attended a meeting on governance issues around the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Service, which may affect the Code

    2. We await guidance from ISPANZ as to how they would like us to proceed with the ISP Code, and how it can best complement the TCF TDRS

  5. Spam

    1. David Harris, Jordan Carter and myself presented an oral submission to the Commerce Select Committee, to back up our written submission

    2. The session went extremely well, with many good questions from the MPs showing a good understanding of the issues.

    3. General feedback has been that our submission was very well received and of great benefit

    4. The bill is due to be reported back to the House in August

  6. Netsafe

    1. INZ is a gold sponsor of the Netsafe Symposium on 6/7 July.

    2. Mark Harris will be attending as one of our three reps, along with two staff

    3. Mark will also be taking part in a panel with Judge Harvey on digital copyright issues

  7. ISPANZ

    1. InternetNZ continues to work well with ISPANZ on common issues, and as noted above we plan to jointly fund a telecommunications policy analyst role

  8. TUANZ

    1. We also continue to work with TUANZ on common issues, and were pleased to be able to attend their recent conference and aim to work together on suitable initiatives

  9. Vic Uni Cyberlaw Fellow

    1. A number of ad hoc meetings have been held with the Cyberlaw Fellow, and a formal meeting of the joint management committee is planned.

David Farrar
Chair, Public Policy

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