Spark/Vodafone peering

Hi All,

I maybe missing on some last century/decade history, but what's the 
current story with Spark/Vodafone public peering in Australia but not in 
New Zealand? With <somebody>  has stopped paid(?) peering with these 
guys recently, is it a today's case that rest of the country talks to 
Spark (government owned?)/Vodafone via 50ms Sydney path and everybody is 
happy with it?

I'm sure I'm missing something important here (except greed).

Regards,
Dmitry