The triple zero emergency telephone services across Australia will be improved and strengthened so they are better equipped to deal with increased demand during disasters, in plans announced by the federal government today.

The New Zealand Government has unveiled its plans for dealing with illegal copying of material over the Internet - primarily via peer-to-peer file sharing - saying it favours a three-notice procedure that would culminate in offenders paying a penalty up to $15,000 and losing their Internet access for six months.

A New Zealand Government task force set up to recommend ways to close the income gap between NZ and Australia has launched a stinging attack on the Government's plans to fund a widespread fibre to the home network.

The CEO of Fairfax Digital, Jack Matthews, has been appointed to the board of the New Zealand Government-owned company, Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH), set up to manage the Government's planned $NZ1.5b investment in a national FTTH network.

The New Zealand Government has kicked off the partner selection process for its $NZ1.5 billion ultra-fast broadband network initiative with the release of an invitation to participate in the provision of partially Government funded FTTP networks that will serve around 75 percent of the population.

Australia has legislation giving telcos access to buildings and land etc for network rollout, but the New Zealand doesn't think legislation the best way to ensure a speedy rollout of its planned FTTH network and is proposing instead a range of "complementary measures."

The telecoms reforms announced yesterday by the Australian Government have been hailed as the biggest change in telecommunications in two decades, and the same claims are being made about the New Zealand Government's announcement today of its version of Australia's NBN: a $NZ1.5b plan to take fibre to most New Zealand homes over the next six years.

New Zealand's communications and IT minister, Steven Joyce, has spelt out the government's rural broadband targets, promising that an estimated $NZ300m will be spent over six years to give 93 percent of rural schools fibre delivering at least 100Mbps and the remaining seven percent getting at least 10Mbps. More than 80 percent of rural households will get at least 5Mbps and the remainder at least 1Mbps.

The New Zealand Government’s department of Building and Housing has contracted ECM vendor, Objective Corporation, to design and implement a solution to manage its information, knowledge and records as an important strategic asset, and to support the growth of its knowledge base and the dissemination of information across the department.