Peter Nowak: And to all my good friends at Telecom ...

After a year as the Herald's technology editor and telecommunications reporter, Peter Nowak is going back to his native Canada. In a shameless ripoff of one of his predecessors (Chris Barton) Nowak interviews himself for his last column.

It's been only a year - why are you leaving?

The truth is, I'm really into hunting moose and there aren't any here. I'd heard there were some on the South Island, but it turns out that's much like our yeti sightings - a myth, really.

That's not really why, is it?

Okay, no it's not. I spent a year working in China before New Zealand, so I've been away for two years, and I really miss my friends and family. Kiwis who have done an overseas experience probably know what I mean when I say that no matter how fantastic a place is, it never compares to home. New Zealand definitely is fantastic, but strangely, I really do miss the minus-20-degree weather.

What will you do when you get back?

Take it easy for a while. Then I may end up writing about technology and telecommunications, we'll see. I may even get into writing about my true love, heavy metal.

Heavy metal?

Yup. I wish I'd done more here, but the Herald is well served by its resident metalhead, Scott Kara. But I'll never forgive Scott for giving the new Tool album, 10,000 Days, only four out of five stars. That album is musical perfection if I've ever heard it. He should be ashamed of himself!

On to technology ... you must really hate Telecom, huh?

I definitely do not. There are many good people working for the company and I like to think I get along well with them. It's never been personal.

What I do hate is the company's habit - which continues to this day - of saying one thing and doing the opposite, and there are many examples of this. A good one was when the Narnia movie came out. Telecom issued a press release patting itself on the back for the good job it had done in providing the connectivity for the production. The Screen Council was virtually apoplectic. Sure, Peter Jackson and the other big films can afford top-notch service, but the accompanying production industry that was expected to develop after Lord of the Rings hasn't happened because of poor and expensive broadband. The work has gone elsewhere. It's a crying shame, and I really feel for these guys.

But everyone is optimistic now about operational separation?

And many people were optimistic about unbundled bitstream in 2004. We all know how that turned out. As several commentators have pointed out, it is naive to believe the leopard can change its spots, especially in a month. Tuanz says Telecom should be given the benefit of the doubt, but the company has done nothing to earn that benefit. With all that's happened, heads need to roll. The market seems to agree.

Is this another one of your crazy conspiracy theories?

That's something that infuriates me. The low point of the past year for me was at the launch of The Business magazine, where NZX chief executive Mark Weldon told a room full of journalists that they should stop looking for conspiracies because there are none. Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung aped that sentiment last week when she accused me of believing in conspiracy theories.

There is no conspiracy. Businesses have a legal responsibility to their shareholders to maximise profit, and getting a leg up on competition and deflecting regulation are necessary tools in doing exactly that. It's our job to question how they do this, and when necessary, criticise them. It appals me that these people try to diminish what we do by branding our questioning and criticism as the propagation of conspiracy theories.

The challenge with Telecom is always to get organic answers to questions, rather than scripted responses. This happens rarely, and it's only then that you even get close to the truth.

What has been the high point?

John Campbell venting the nation's frustration over poor broadband at Gattung on TV a few months ago. I was proud that Campbell had obviously been reading what some of us were writing. On a larger level, the episode was the turning point in the debate - broadband was officially elevated from a geek problem, ghetto-ised in the tech pages, to a mainstream issue. I knew strong Government action was inevitable after that.

It hasn't all been Telecom and broadband, has it?

No it hasn't, but that has been the over-riding issue. You can't really have a healthy technology industry until you have a healthy broadband situation, which is why I've wasted so much ink on the topic. In the end, just about every local technology story ended up coming back to broadband. Hopefully, once New Zealand catches up to the rest of the world, there will be much more to write about. I look forward to the day when there are no more broadband stories, and I'll be looking on from Canada with great interest to see if it happens. Like the rest of the industry, I'm optimistic. The jig is up, but media vigilance must be maintained.

Who's replacing you?

The lovely and ever-capable Jenny Keown is overseeing Friday's Connect@Home, and the similarly capable and no less lovely Simon Hendery will be handling Tuesday's Connect@Work until a permanent editor is hired. Heck, Gattung has said she'd like to be a journalist - maybe she should apply?

Until then, haere ra and, as we hosers say back in Canada, good day, eh!