InternetNZ policy director resigns after making Labour list

UPDATE APRIL 26: InternetNZ said today that policy director Jordon Carter had resigned.

His last day will be May 19.

“Jordan wants to increasingly focus on his political career. We wish him the very best," said InternetNZ chief executive Vikram Kumar.

Keith Davidson added, "Jordan had been an InternetNZ councillor during my term as president of the Society, and later Jordan was on my staff during the four years I spent as executive eirector of InternetNZ. Jordan's intellectual capability, his ability to analyse complex issues and present principled, logical positions and submissions was outstanding. My best wishes go to Jordan in fulfilling his political ambitions."

Mr Kumar told NBR that InternetNZ will seek to hire a replacement for Jordon Carter.

APRIL 11: InternetNZ policy director Jordon Carter has been named number 40 on Labour's list, released this afternoon (below).

The group - which acts as both wholesaler and administrator of .nz domain names, and end-user advocate - has strongly opposed several aspects of the government's ultrafast broadband (UFB) programme, especially provisions of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, elements of which it sees as anti-competitive, and not in consumers' best interests.

However, Mr Carter has always kept his Labour activities separate from his InternetNZ lobbying.

Last election, Mr Carter was number 70 on the list.

This year, discounting list places held by sitting MPs, Mr Carter is effectively 24th in line, meaning Labour would need 37% of the vote for him to enter parliament, by Kiwiblog calculations.

With Labour support hovering in the early thirties (a One News Colmar Brunton poll today put it at 34%), the InternetNZ man will have his work cut out to take a seat in parliament.

Fibre contenders "price in" possibility of Labour return
Yet political calculations still worry the industry.

On Friday, NBR spoke with Orcon chief executive Scott Bartlett.

Mr Bartlett was concerned that the government had got into too adversarial a position with opposition parties over the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, and aspects of the legislation such as the 10-year regulatory holiday.

Communications minster Steven Joyce has said that fibre companies would have to "price in" the risk of Commerce Commission interference if it weren't for the 10-year forbearance period, likely pushing up prices.

However, Mr Bartlett said even though Labour's fortunes were low right now, it was likely that the party would return to power at some point before the end of the UFB project (which will run until at least 2021). 

At this point, the confrontational, or-or-nothing nature of the debate meant Labour was likely to roll back many provisions of the UFB altogether - and that fibre companies were already pricing in this risk.

Mr Barltett favoured co-opting Labour by, for example, a regulatory forbearance period tied to a company hitting a given market share level, say 50%. 

Other tech names
Labour communications and broadcasting spokesperson Clare Curran (who holds the Dunden South seat) is at 28, up from 45 in 2008.

Another tech name on the list is former TelstraClear manager Clayton Cosgrove, MP for Waimakariri and number 8 on the list. In 2008, Mr Cosgrove was number 18.

Elsewhere, there were few surprises.

Outgoing party president and tipped leadership contender Andrew Little - also contesting New Plymouth - is at number 15, making him the highest ranked non-MP. The EPMU national secretary is also contesting New Plymouth.

Damien O'Connor has been left off the list, meaning he would have to win back his old seat of Tasman-West Coast from National's Chris Auchinvole to stay in parliament.

New Zealand's first Muslim MP, Ashraf Choudhary, who does not hold a seat and is not in line to contest one, has been dropped from the list.

Rising star Jacinda Ardern is at number 13; alleged leadership contenders David Parker and Grant Robertson are at numbers 4 and 14 respectively.

The full list:

Labour Party List 2011
1. Phil Goff 
2. Annette King
3. David Cunliffe
4. David Parker
5. Ruth Dyson
6. Parekura Horomia
7. Maryan Street
8. Clayton Cosgrove
9. Trevor Mallard
10. Sue Moroney
11. Charles Chauvel
12. Nanaia Mahuta
13. Jacinda Ardern
14. Grant Robertson
15. Andrew Little
16. Shane Jones
17. Su'a William Sio
18. Darien Fenton
19. Moana Mackey
20. Rajen Prasad
21. Raymond Huo
22. Carol Beaumont
23. Kelvin Davis
24. Carmel Sepuloni
25. Rick Barker
26. Deborah Mahuta-Coyle
27. Stuart Nash
28. Clare Curran
29. Brendon Burns
30. Chris Hipkins
31. David Shearer
32. Michael Wood
33. Phil Twyford
34. Stephanie (Steve) Chadwick
35. Kate Sutton
36. Jerome Mika
37. Iain Lees-Galloway
38. Josie Pagani
39. Lynette Stewart
40. Jordan Carter
41. Kris Faafoi
42. Christine Rose
43. Glenda Alexander
44. Susan Zhu
45. Rino Tirikatene
46. Sehai Orgad
47. Megan Woods
48. Mea'ole Keil
49. David Clark
50. Richard Hills
51. Anahila Suisuiki
52. Hamish McDouall
53. Louis Te Kani
54. Tat Loo
55. Soraya Peke-Mason
56. Julian Blanchard
57. Peter Foster
58. Pat Newman
59. Julia Haydon-Carr
60. Michael Bott
61. Vivienne Goldsmith
62. Nick Bakulich
63. Chris Yoo
64. Barry Monks
65. Hugh Kininmonth
66. Jo Kim
67. Paula Gillon
68. Carol Devoy-Heena 
69. Ben Clark
70. Chao-Fu Wu