Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you Madam Chair. It was quite difficult to try and pay attention to the debate with all the to-ing and fro-ing with all the references to plants and—Hon Member: It'll grow on you.MELISSA LEE: Yes. I guess those kinds of jokes have set root in this Chamber. Thank you Minister for the setting of what this bill is actually all about. I think it is really important to explain that the plant variety rights are a form of intellectual property rights providing plant breeders with exclusive rights relating to reproductive material such as seeds or cuttings of the variety in concern. I think when you actually consider the fact as the Minister has actually said this is to bring New Zealand up to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 91 (UPOV-91). The current Plant Variety Rights Act is aligned with an earlier version of UPOV convention which is UPOV-78. So we need to actually grow with the times and come up with a way that we can actually either how would you say accede to the UPOV. I don't quite know how to pronounce that is it You-pov" or "Ooh-pov"? UPOV-91. National supports moving to a new plant variety rights regime that will give effect to UPOV-91 and strengthen protection for plant breeders.I guess with the committee stages we have to actually go clause by clause. In Part 1 I have specific questions to the Minister. In Part 1 Subpart 1 at clause 3 paragraph (b) it actually talks about how it protects the kaitiaki relationship with taonga species and mātauranga Māori in the plant variety rights system. And if you actually look at Part 1 Subpart 2 the interpretation of some of that and if you go to where it actually talks about the kaitiaki relationship it says "in relation to a plant species means the relationship that any particular iwi hapū individual of Māori descent or Māori entity has or Māori in general have as guardian trustee or caretaker of—(a) an indigenous plant species; or (b) a non-indigenous plant species of significance". So I'm trying to actually find out exactly what those species are. Is there actually a list of the kaitiaki relationships that a particular indigenous plant species or non-indigenous plant species have that are actually of significance to the Māori for this particular kaitiaki relationship that this part actually talks about?One of the reasons I actually ask that question is because in my own culture we have specific things that actually have special meaning. For example what Māori call kūmara in Korean we call goguma. Goguma is a sweet potato that actually nourished the people during the war. That was the only means of food that people actually had in Korea. Sweet potato was boiled up and people actually used it as a meal when they did not have the grains. And the leaves and the stalk of the leaves are even now to this day dried and used as a side dish. So it is actually very special to the Korean people. So I'm thinking is kūmara which is the same thing as goguma sweet potato—does it actually have the kaitiaki relationship or the rights in this particular legislation? I would really appreciate if there are others that the Minister thinks that he should highlight to the Chamber on this particular aspect of the bill.Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Obviously that's the part where we would discuss exactly which ones are in as a separate part of the bill. But I shall endeavour to get the member as best a list as I can as the debate progresses. It's something I'm aware was covered fairly extensively at the select committee."