Trevor Hawkins M5AKA

73 Trevor M5AKA

Negotiations are continuing. While Council had hoped that the fees issue would have been resolved by now, we have to report that the negotiations with MED towards a satisfactory outcome for NZART members continues.

Considerable progress has been made particularly in recent months. For the next 12 months no amateur licence fees are being charged and likewise there will be no repeater and beacon licence fees. As to what happens into the future all that can be said at this stage is that NZART continues to negotiate with MED RSM for a satisfactory outcome.

Peter ZL2SJ, then NZART President and Bruce Douglas Vice-President, have been confirmed by NZART Council as the NZART negotiating team to negotiate with MED RSM for a satisfactory outcome to the callsign licensing fees issues. The team has the power to co-opt who-so-ever they see fit to assist to achieve the above. Fred ZL2AMJ as Administration Liaison Officer and Evan Sayer NZART
Treasurer made up the four-person NZART Team who met with the MED in Wellington at 10 a.m. on Monday 9th May.

MED officials traversed the history aspects in relation to fees (which were already known to all present) and started the discussions regarding the then 12-point plan that Fred ZL2AMJ had sent through to the MED the previous week.
The point was made that by invoicing NZART for beacons, repeaters and fixed links with one invoice, they, MED, made a considerable saving compared to the current practice of sending out 4700 invoices to individual radio amateurs.

The negotiating team explained that we were happy with this course of action provided that we, NZART, could recoup the assessed fee from all New Zealand amateurs and not just from NZART members.

We stressed quite forcefully that our proposal to pay the assessed fee is only the first part of the process. NZART must have the ability to invoice all New Zealand amateurs to recoup the MED fee otherwise the process will fall over.
Our members will not accept this situation as NZART had been carrying the non-members for many years. The recouping of costs must, we believe, come from a callsign validation/certification fee unless the MED had another way of collecting it from all New Zealand amateurs. We explained in detail and repeatedly that this is the crux of the matter.

MED acknowledged our predicament and suggested other funding options such as a grant from police, a grant from SAR, or grants from trusts or foundations.
These all had their own problems and we believe that they are MED problems and not NZART problems. This was thrashed out many times but we were still left with one invoice for the assessed fee and no equitable solution i.e. the requirement that all New Zealand amateurs must contribute to this fee.

We offered to construct and to use our own database and to charge an annual callsign validation fee. The MED reply was that they can't recognise private databases, they, under policy now in force only recognise in-house government
databases and they would not make it mandatory for amateurs to pay the fee. It would also create another bureaucracy and this would not be an acceptable model.

Another MED officer known to us joined the meeting at about 11.15 a.m. We tried many times and from different angles to emphasise our objective to get all New Zealand amateurs to contribute to the assessed fee. This, as we have said in the beginning and have emphasised repeatedly, is the crux of the matter. We cannot see a way forward unless we are excused from the fee, or have someone
assume responsibility for it, or we are able to recoup our costs.

He in turn gave no assurance to us that we would have a monopoly. We said that if others assumed an examination and licence-issuing role, then they too should likewise assume and accept some of the fees burden. Other suggestions were offered but it was going over old ground and not helpful, so we came to a virtual stalemate.

MED conceded that NZART was in a difficult situation and one not of its own making. Despite assurances that all licensees would be notified, an MED announcement first appeared on its web page which was subsequently reported in the last NZART HQ InfoLine. We stress again that the negotiations continue and nothing has been settled.

http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/

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