Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations, and State Enterprises — Commerce Commission

I am speaking on the Commerce Commission vote, which is a very, very important vote and Crown entity, indeed. I do note and acknowledge that the Commerce Committee may, in fact, have missed on page 5 of the report a slight mistake there.

The Commerce Commission plays an essential part in the monitoring and enforcing of a very, very important part of the regulatory regime across New Zealand. Part 4 of the Commerce Act obviously gets a lot of attention in the way that it has played out in courts, and merits reviews and inputs reviews, etc. I do note that, and the committee did talk about that, plus some other matters, in its report.

One of the facets of New Zealand being a small economy is that in some instances where there are one or two large players they can, potentially, exploit their dominant position or monopoly-type position, or perhaps drive monopoly rents. Of course, that is not acceptable to anyone at all—at least, I am sure, not to most members in this Chamber.

One of the harder parts about the commission’s vote is that there is an estimate there in its outputs and deliverables, but it is actually very hard to estimate the time frames under which judicial processes do happen. So that does create difficulties for that vote and can provide, perhaps, uncertainty out there in the commercial space. It can allow so much for judicial reviews, judicial processes, or testing in court, and then a review can happen, so these may well cross over into new financial years. There can be difficulties there, but I do acknowledge that the commission is doing a very good job, and the committee generally noted that in its report here before the Committee of the whole House.

One point in the report that the committee noted is that it did ask the commission about issues around convergence, particularly in and around broadcasting. I think that was pretty wise of the committee, because of the challenges of all things governance. In fact, as mentioned here in the report on the Commerce Commission, to put it in a simple way, that bit of glass in our lounges that we all traditionally call the TV or the television is actually only a bit of glass. Although we all probably call it a TV, it can now receive data or content traditionally by analog signal, although that is switching off across the country over the next 18 months; by digital—as DTT, or digital terrestrial television—by satellite; or by cable in some instances. In fact, many TVs now come with either a Wi-Fi or an ethernet enabler. Additions can be put on; other little modules can be put on. The simple message there is the challenges for organisations and entities such as the Commerce Commission in broadcasting, you name it, having to deal with a rapidly changing digital environment under which content can now be delivered by many means that were not even contemplated when much of the legislation—be it commerce-type legislation or even broadcasting-type legislation—was put together, thought of, and voted upon with, I am sure, the best of intentions around this House.

I do note again that the Commerce Committee talks about this on page 171, but I make the point that we just have to make sure that we maintain flexibility, and perhaps be platform-neutral, as within this Parliament here we devise regulatory regimes and models that entities like the Commerce Commission look after. There is also the example that a person can now read on a tablet or an iPad things off the internet, they can listen to the radio, they can watch TV, or they can watch a movie, and all of those can be from either within New Zealand or afar. They can be live, recorded, sped up, or slowed down as the user wants.

My point is that with regard to much of the rules and regulations that entities like the Commerce Commission have to look after, we may actually have to have a look at some of these models, simply because technology and the real world, if you like, are moving at such a fast pace that there are grey areas—which the committee did start to have a look at here—of where governance is black and white and where it is grey. Of course, there are sovereignty issues around things that ultra-fast broadband brings upon our economy.

Report noted.

Retirement Commissioner