Steven Joyce has announced:

The government has today reached agreements with Telecom New Zealand and Enable Networks that will complete the roll out of ultra fast broadband (UFB) to 75% of New Zealanders where they live, work and study.

The government will partner with Enable Networks, which is 100% owned by Christchurch ratepayers through the Christchurch City Council, to build an ultra fast broadband network for Christchurch, Rangiora and surrounding areas.

The Telecom deals will see a fibre optic network built in Auckland, the eastern and lower North Island and most of the South Island.

As part of the deal, Telecom must split off its network arm, Chorus, into a completely separate company, so that all broadband retailers can compete fairly to on-sell wholesale ultra fast broadband. Chorus will maintain the Kiwishare obligations currently placed on Telecom.

Congratulations to Telecom, and commiserations to Vector and the Regional Fibre Group. Also congrats to the Minister for turning an ambitious policy into a reality.

There were pros and cons with either party winning, and I suspect the negotiations were very tough.

The major focus for many now will be on the structural separation of Telecom. This is probably going to the biggest change in the telco sector since Telecom was created out of the Post Office. The details of the separation are quite vital – Chorus needs to be totally independent from Telecom as quickly as possible.

Today’s agreements with Telecom and Enable mean the government will reach its goal of bringing ultrafast broadband to 75% of New Zealanders by 2019. The rollout will start immediately with schools, hospitals and 90% of businesses covered by 2015.

I believe the fibre rollout will change New Zealand. With fibre to the home, you will get far far more people working from home, less demand for office space, video-conferencing will be as routine as changing the channel on your TV etc.

Wholesale household prices will start at $40 or less per month for an entry level product and $60 per month for the 100 Megabit product. There are no connection charges for households.

Mr Joyce says today is a very exciting day for New Zealand.

“The future of broadband is in fibre, and taking it right to the home will bring significant gains for productivity, innovation and global reach.”

The prices seem pretty reasonable. What will be interesting is what retail services develop to use the fibre. such as combined phone/Internet/TV/movie packages.

The future is in fibre, and I do believe this will be a contributor to increased productivity and economic growth.

Chorus is going to become (for most of NZ) the provider of both copper and fibre access. It will be an infrastructure company. Over time, I’d like to see Chorus (and the other local fibre companies) move towards providing cellphone towers to retail telcos such as Vodafone, 2 degrees and Telecom. It would make a lot of sense as the LFCs will have the fibre connection for the backhauls, and it would mean each telco wouldn’t need to get consent for their own individual towers, but could just hire space on a tower for their transmitters.

Andrea Vance at Stuff blogs:

The parliamentary press gallery have not long traipsed back from our regular Monday “stand-up” with Phil Goff. It was a good chance for us to drill down on some of the finer points of Labour’s new proposals.

Here’s what we know: Labour is proposing to re-instate research and development tax credits, bring farmers into the ETS scheme earlier than expected and lift the minimum wage to $15.

But after our little question and answer session with Goff, there are more questions than answers.

Here’s what we don’t know: Will the tax credits extend to foreign companies? And how is Labour planning to cap them? What will the carbon price will be for the ETS proposals?

We didn’t get an adequate response to criticism that lifting the minimum wage will cost 6000 jobs.

When asked about policy details, Goff repeatedly – and testily – told us to ask Labour researchers. ”Look, I’m not going into the details on that.”

Hmmn, “Ask my staff, not me” is not generally regarded as a good line for leaders to use, even if it is true.

Goff reckons business can afford the wage rise – he told us previous rises under Labour had created jobs, ignoring the fact they were very different economic times.

That is the key point. In a booming economy where jobs are scarce, you can increase the minimum wage with well minimal impact on employment. But pledging to do so at a time of relatively high unemployment and incredibly high youth unemployment is irresponsible as it will price young workers out of the job market.

As at every stand-up, TV political editors Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner toyed with Goff like cats playing with a wounded mouse. They wanted to know how it is possible to impose a cap on the credits. (Business NZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly likes the idea but says it will be impossible to limit insterest. Key says you can’t – and Labour has got their numbers wrong on the cost.)

Goff, sensibly giving Labour’s reputation on spending, stressed there was $800 million in the pot and that was it. But he couldn’t explain how they could impose that limit.

Mainly because you can’t, unless you make the scheme entirely arbitrary and first in first served. This is one of the reasons the scheme was scraped – it has the potential to blow out massively as firms classify expenditure as research to gain the tax credit.

There the matter should have rested – but Goff’s political skills deserted him. Flustered, he fell into a catty exchange, mixing up the two veteran hacks and sniping “It’s sometimes hard to tell the two of you apart.”

Really?

This is Guyon Espiner. He is the One News Political Editor.

And this is Duncan Garner, Political Editor for 3 News.

If Phil is having trouble telling them apart, he may need glasses. But to help him, I’ll provide descriptions as if they were super models.

Guyon is the Size 0 editor while Duncan is the plus sized editor.

What a shame. It was all going quite well. The congress generated some positive headlines and, more important, some good debate about the economy. Business NZ liked the tax credits idea, and Goff made a good stab at smacking down Key’s claims that the ETS proposals would drive up the price of milk.

Now the wheels have come off a bit. If Goff can’t answer basic questions about his brand new economic  policies, do Labour’s ideas have your confidence?

Even worse they are not brand new economic policies. They are the policies Labour went into the last election on. So all the detail work was done years ago and would be available in papers and the like.

Over at Stuff, I comment on the latest Roy Morgan poll. It is the first scientific poll done since the change of leadership for ACT, and ACT poll only 2%. I comment:

This poll reflects my previously stated view that the way the coup against Rodney Hide played out alienated many potential Act voters.

If ACT remains below 5%, then Epsom will become vital for ACT’s survival.

NZEI’s hatred of Anne Tolley is clouding all their judgement. Their latest bizarre rant is that they are unhappy Tolley did not fly to New York for some talk fest conference, and instead stayed in New Zealand to concentrate on getting Christchurch schools re-opened.

Jo McKenzie-McLean writes in The Press:

Unions have criticised Education Minister Anne Tolley for not attending an international summit in New York because of the Christchurch earthquake.

Tolley was to lead a delegation in mid-March to the International Summit on the Teaching Profession at the invitation of United States Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) president Ian Leckie and the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) president Kate Gainsford attended the summit, held at the New York Hilton.

The Hilton sounds cheap.

However, Tolley said there was “no way” she was going to leave New Zealand after the earthquake to attend a conference.

She also questioned why the union leaders had attended the summit.

“It is up to these union leaders to justify to their members why they believe their job was to fly to New York for a conference while thousands of their members were affected by the Christchurch earthquake,” Tolley said.

“With all Christchurch schools still closed, many of them seriously damaged, and students displaced and out of school, there was no way I was going to leave.

“It was my job to be in Christchurch and Wellington leading ministry officials and supporting schools to reopen, and I was hugely impressed by the determination and hard work from principals, trustees and teachers during such a distressing time.

“I’ve personally told the NZEI union leaders, in no uncertain terms, my feelings on this matter.”

Imagine if Tolley had gone. She would have been attacked for abandoning New Zealand. NZEI seem determined to have an confrontational relationship.

If you have questions for Labour Leader Phil Goff, he is doing a live chat at 3.30 pm on Facebook.

Someone should ask him if he will pass a special law to ban the Wellywood sign. that might give him a boost in the polls.

UPDATE: Goff also did a session on Twitter which was good fun. The Facebook one was hugely moderated but on Twitter you see the questions as they are asked.

I asked Goff whether, if elected PM, he would get the Navy to fire a missile at the wellywood sign. He replied it was “tempting!”.

He also said he will vote for aa split 18/20 alcohol purchase age. He said he will not vote for gay marriage and ignored my question on same sex adoption.

Overall kudos to Goff for doing the Twitter session. Would be nice to have it last longer next time.

The Southland Times editorial:

Suffer the little children to come unto … a brand new Government minister, all of their own.

Labour Deputy Leader Annette King proposes that a senior minister – and also that must-have accessory that no minister should be seen without; a ministry – be created to co-ordinate and focus all that national goodwill we have towards our kids in a more coherent, rewarding way.

The immediate sniff is that what kids really need isn’t more bureaucracy to lumber around on their behalf.

I am sure kids around the country are celebrating that they mey get their own ministry.

Ms King says the new ministry’s job would be to make sure “that children are a priority not just in theory, but in practice”. This would clearly distinguish it from the agenda of the Families Commission and the Children’s Commissioner, which was to fatten them up to be baked into pies.

And the Children’s Commissioner is independent – can attack the Government. A CEO of a Ministry for Children can not.

Neither will it pass without public comment that Ms King proposes a minister and a department in advance of any new policy regarding what they would do. It is a terribly hard sell to convince the public that ministers and ministries are a good idea in and of themselves. Or that it’s one of those Field of Dreams deals. If you build the ministry, the smart ideas will come …

It reminds me of the Yes Minister episode – a hospital with no patients. Instead it is a Ministry with no policy.

Michael Dickison in the NZ Herald reports:

The Pike River mining disaster being cited by a union boss as an example of an anti-worker culture is “churlish”, says the Prime Minister.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly told the Labour Party Congress yesterday that Pike River had “failed in its fundamental duty to provide a safe workplace” yet was initially protected from scrutiny by the state.

She noted how John Key had sat next to Pike River’s chief executive during the memorial service.

Mr Key said last night that Ms Kelly was being “churlish” – and dangerous, too, considering that a Royal Commission of Inquiry was ongoing.

“For Helen Kelly to make those comments until we know what actually happened in that mine is inappropriate in my view. It’s getting in the way of the royal commission.”

The memorial had been a time for everyone to grieve rather than to apportion blame, Mr Key said.

“That day may well come, depending on the results of the royal commission, but it wasn’t appropriate at the time when we held a memorial service.”

 It was a bizarre rant from Helen Kelly. She seemed upset that Pike River executives were not immediately tarred and feathered and made into national villians.

As the PM says, she doesn’t seem to realise the difference between a time to mourn and a time to find out what happened, and who is to blame.

I don’t know if this ad is real or not – it was sent to me by e-mail. I don’t actually endorse destroying the sign, but do hope someone can drape a sheet over it or something so it is hidden without being daamaged.

Stuff reports:

Business NZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly said Labour’s policy was “the worst possible news” for young people on the dole.

“The very last thing you would want to do is make it harder to employ them. I just don’t understand where Phil Goff is coming from with this.

“He already knows the reason why there’s such high youth unemployment right now is we don’t have a youth minimum wage.”

Faced with such a steep rise in costs, businesses would probably lay off staff, Mr O’Reilly said.

Labour fundamentally do not seem to understand the difference between economic cycles.

If unemployment is low, and employers are struggling to find people to fill jobs, then yes one can increase the minimum wage with little impact on employment.

But when unemployment is relatively high, and many firms are still recovering from the recession, you can’t increase the minimum wage without a significant impact on employment.

They key thing is you need to get people into jobs first, and then once people are in jobs, then they are better placed to get wage increases.

A 15% increase in the minimum wage in one year would be the largest ever, and at a time when youth unemployment is at 27% or so. And they don’t see the correlation! How the hell will a 16 year old ever find a job if it is illegal for them to work for $14 an hour.

Headline at Stuff:

Apocalypse followers shocked as nothing happens

Says it all really.

Robert Fitzpatrick spent more than $140,000 of his savings on posters and advertisements warning of the May 21 Judgement Day.

As he stood in Times Square in New York, surrounded by onlookers, Fitzpatrick, 60, carried a bible and handed out leaflets as he waited for Judgement Day to begin.

When the hour, 6pm New Zealand time, came and went, he said: “I do not understand why …,” as his speech broke off and he looked at his watch.

I wonder if he is smart enough to even feel stupid?

Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.

So why give him the time of day again?

Whale has an unusual guest poster at Gotcha – Labour MP Clare Curran.

I wonder if the deal is reciprocal, and this means Whale gets guest posting rights at Red Alert? 🙂

The speech is here.

First the bad:

Contact Energy was sold by National in 1999. Since then $1 billion in profits from it has gone out of the country to foreign investors. 

A meaningless figure unless you know what it sold for – which was $2.3b. That $2.3b may have al gone towards paying off foreign debt. Goff’s argument is stupid and misleading. He did the same in January:

“Foreign-owned Edison made a lot of money out of the sale of Contact,” Phil Goff said. “It sold its 51 per cent stake in Contact for nearly $1.7 billion in 2004 when the whole company was sold for $2.3 billion in 1999.

At least he mentioned the purchase price here, but again Labour forgets to mention the cost of capital or equity. If I was generous I would say it is because none of them have a business background and really do think money grows on trees.

Edison’s average return on their investment is a bit under 8% per annum. That might not even have covered the cost of their equity.

That $2.3b in 1999 is worth $5.8b in 2011, if you assume a 8% cost of equity. You can not compare prices a decade apart without including the cost of capital/equity.

John Key and Bill English promised in the election campaign they would not cut KiwiSaver.  

They lied. 

On Friday they passed legislation to do just that. 

Goff is flat out wrong here.In the 2008 election campaign National explictly promised they would cut KiwiSaver, and they got elected on that mandate, and implemented it.

And in 2011 they are again saying they will make changes to KiwiSaver, and giving people the chance to vote on them before they come into effect in 2012 and 2013. The total opposite of what Mr Goff did in Government which was to not give the public a vote on new policies.

I can’t today promise to restore KiwiSaver completely.

Which he would do if he really thought it was the wrong decision.

But I am telling our top earners today that they need to pay a little more  to help reduce our debt and get the economy growing. 

Those earning over $60,000 (those Labour deemed rich last time) now pay around 90% of net income tax. And Goff says this is not enough.

In our first year, Labour will increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour to ensure that people who work for a living get a fair living wage. 

And who is going to hire a 16 year old with no skills and no experience at $15 an hour? Wouldn’t it be better to allow a 16 year old to take a job at say $12 an hour and actually gain some experience so then in their next job they may earn a bit more?

There are now 77,000 young people under 25 who are unemployed. That’s one in four – one in three in the Māori and Pasifika community. 

And I plan to make it worse by pricing them out of the Labour market. Idiot.

We will introduce a R&D tax credit initially at 12.5%. That will cost an average of $160 million a year – $800 million over five years.

It is a good thing to have the country undertake more research and development. That is an important part of increasing productivity and economic growth.

However a tax credit is a fairly blunt tool. It can often lead to companies just trying to gain the tax credit, without actually doing innovative research and development. The tax credit can become the goal, rather than a catalyst.

I welcome the $180m/yr on R&D but am not convinced an across the board tax credit will be that effective in lifting our R&D.

In another example of poor economic choices, National left every New Zealander having to pay for their transport and electricity emissions,

Goff is wrong again. National is subsidising the transport and electricity emissions so that consumers only pay half the cost of their emissions. Labour’s policy has been to remove that subsidy which will see power prices increase 3% and petrol prices by 3c/. They don’t mention this very loudly when complaining about the cost of living, as it undermines their rhetoric.

but exempted farming from paying for their agricultural emissions. That is not fair.

Having the taxpayer meet the cost simply means that the pollution goes on for longer.

The exemption removes the incentive to agriculture to move more quickly to reduce global warming gasses which account for 48% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

Labour is proposing to restore the entry date of 2013 for agriculture to come into the Emissions Trading Scheme. This means farmers will pay for just 10 per cent of their 2005 agricultural emissions, plus any growth since then.

We don’t believe this is asking too much. Agriculture is important but all sectors need to pay their fair share. 

This is a rather stupid decision. Until there is some scientific breakthough on reducing methane emissions from cows, bringing agriculture early into the ETS will merely make NZ farmers uncompetive with their competitors, and lead to a drop in exports.

It is not about whether a sector is important or not. It is about whether a sector has external competitors. This is basic economics again.

Rob O’Neill in the SST reports:

In his “Trust Busting” paper, Molloy cited a series of cases that he said “raise disturbing questions of systemic integrity”.

He complained about New Zealand’s “one judge fits all” approach to law, where the legal profession fails to insist counsel should not argue cases in areas where they have no competence, and parliament fails to insist judges sit on cases only where they have acknowledged expertise.

“Parliament continues to fail to organise the High Court into divisions dealing with crime, family law, equity [trusts and fiduciary matters] and other general litigation,” Molloy said.

He compared the approach to having a gynaecologist performing brain surgery, or electrical engineers designing viaducts. That judges are allocated “like cabs off a rank”, he said, is “deplorable”.

Molloy said counsel would be in breach of their duty of care and exposed to claims of negligence were they to litigate in areas beyond their expertise. Yet judges often sit on cases they should not.

I’ve heard this complaint several times – that Judges are all meant to be generalists, rather than make the best use of their specialist skills.

I wonder what the rationale for the status quo is?

Andrea Vance in the SST reports:

POLICE MINISTER Judith Collins has pledged to support a call for laws to prevent girls under 16 having abortions without their parents being told.

Collins said she would support a private member’s bill requiring parents to be involved before a termination could take place.

She could not introduce it herself, because ministers can only introduce legislation related to their own portfolios, but her stand comes after the Sunday Star-Times revealed a mother’s anger that a school counsellor arranged an abortion for her teenage daughter.

While in opposition in 2004, Collins proposed the Care of Children Act be amended to make parental notification mandatory for girls under 16. The act allows a female of any age to consent to an abortion. Collins proposed that if a girl objected to parental notification, a doctor would contact the district court to arrange an appointment for the girl to see a judge in chambers within 24 hours.

I’m not a fan of changing the law, but if you were to do so, it is important to have a procedure where notification does not occur – especially vital in cases of incest.

I would hope that any child who has an abortion does tell their parents, as how can the parents be there to support them if unaware. But as I said, I am not sure it is a good idea to make notification a legal necessity – it could lead to a pregnant teen trying to do a back street abortion. 

In 2009, 3950 girls aged 11 to 19 had abortions.

That isn’t a very useful number. The relevant number is how many aged under 16 had abortions. The stats don’t tell us for under 16, but in 2009 only 79 abortions were done for those aged under 15. That’s 79 too many, but it is also far from a tidal wave. In fact the number of abortions (all ages) has been declining for the last two years.

UPDATE: Family First have supplied me more detailed stats, and n 2009 there 299 abortions on under 16 year olds.

Jonathan Marshall reports in the SST:

A LISTENING device has been discovered during sweeps for bugs at government ministers’ homes.

The searches, by Government Communication Security Bureau staff, were done amid fears surveillance devices have been planted ahead of the November election.

Government sources told the Sunday Star-Times that ministerial homes and offices have been swept, sometimes secretly, and at least one listening device found.

The partner of one senior minister told the Star-Times that GCSB officials used high-tech equipment to scan their home for bugs. Nothing suspicious was found but the agents confirmed other recent searches had been positive, but gave no further details.

This does not surprise me greatly. Probably the same people who rummage through rubbish and covertly record conversations at cocktail parties.

Annette King said:

After the 2011 Election, a Labour-led Government will have a Minister for children.

It still astounds me that in New Zealand we have a Minister for Race horses; a Minister for the Rugby World Cup; a Minister for Senior Citizens but no Minister for the most vulnerable in our community, our Kids.

Labour will establish a Ministry for Children. Its job will be to make sure children are a priority, not just in theory, but in practice.

If the lack of a Minister for Children amazes Annette, why didn’t she call for one sometime in the last 30 years she has been an MP? How about when she was Minister of Youth Affairs in 1989?

And I agree it is silly we have a Minister for race horses. But I was not a member of the Cabinet which massively increased funding for race horses, against official advice, to placate Winston – whose major secret funders happen to all own race horses.

Heather Roy notes:

“New Zealand already has a small army of Ministers and departments to deal with child welfare; the Ministry of Social Development, the Children’s Commissioner, the Families Commission and the Ministry of Youth Development, and yet too many of our vulnerable children are still subject to terrible abuse and poverty.

I have no doubt that Annette is absolutely sincere in wanting to reduce child abuse and the like. But I am very cynical about the notion that another Ministry is the answer.

The Labour website proudly proclaims that Labour has no plan and no visions. Thanks for clearing that up.

The Dom Post reports:

At a share price of $1.13 the Government has lost about $125m on its $1 billion investment.

But this was more than compensated for by $450m in dividends the airline has paid it over the past 10 years, which means taxpayers are still $325m ahead.

No we’re not. The cost of capital has been over-looked.

The Government borrows at around 6%. So if it had not sunk $1 billion into Air NZ, it would have $60 million less interest a year. And then if you compound the interest, the actual cost of the investment in Air NZ is $1.79 billion.

The current value is $875m plus $450m in divideds, which is 1.33b. So the Government is down around $460 million.

One may have a viewpoint that a loss was acceptable to keep Air NZ solvent (mind you if Cullen and Anderton had not blocked sale to Singapore Air a bailout would not have been needed), but you shouldn’t declare that the Government is $325m ahead, by ignoring cost of capital.

NZPA report:

An allowance for veterans with gallantry decorations has been increased nearly threefold, from $10.49 to $30 a week.

The allowance is paid to just over 100 veterans who receive a war disablement pension and have a gallantry decoration, such as the Victoria Cross or the Military Medal.

The increase takes effect from June 9.

There are not many 200% increases I would approve of.

Dave Burgess at the Dom Post reports:

A Wellywood sign to celebrate the capital’s film industry will be built along the hillside next to the Miramar Cutting.

The Hollywood-style sign will be 3.5 metres high and 28m wide. It is understood to cost several hundred thousand dollars and is intended to be ready for the Rugby World Cup in September.

Veteran Wellington film director Geoff Murphy could barely stop laughing when told yesterday that the idea would proceed.

“We had a film industry well before this Wellywood bullshit was going on. I think it’s f …ing stupid. It is copying a foreign, bullshit glamour idea and it’s the pits of what people can aspire to.”

It is all those things and more. I hate it. It is pathethic and wannabe. I don’t know anyone in Wellington who wants it. The airport company should concentrate on safer runways and not spend passengers money on such stuidities.

Have they not listened to the tens of thousands who said no? Can they cite anyone in favour who is not a member of their “creative” team?

It will be interesting if they can get the sign insured. They may need to build 30 metre high walls around it, to keep it safe.

It’s so embarrassing to almost make me want to move to Auckland.

You can join the Facebook group against.

Or even better send an e-mail to the Airport, and tell them your views directly.

The Dom Post reports:

Vodafone has slashed the price customers pay to check email and surf the web on its mobiles and smartphones when visiting Australia by 80 per cent.

The price cut, from $5 a megabyte to $1/Mb, undercuts the rates offered by Telecom and 2degrees. It came a week after 2degrees dropped its “casual” data roaming rate from $30/Mb to $2.50/Mb.

Telecom now has the most expensive rate, at $8/Mb, but all three mobile operators offer 100Mb of data roaming in Australia for $100.

Good to see prices going down. At $1/Mb I’ll actualy leave data turned on.