Jones Dail: Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill — First Reading 
Jones Dail: Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17226] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will be supporting the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill. Obviously it is very long overdue. As the New Zealand First spokesperson on the arts I read a book or two now and then and I am only too pleased to support a greater remuneration for the authors of New Zealand. 
I recall the background of the Authors’ Fund. Members may know that I opposed Dr Michael Bassett and won the seat of Waitemata in 1975. I had many discussions with Dr Michael Bassett in subsequent years when he came back to Parliament. One of his little asides always was that he established the Authors’ Fund. Maybe Dr Bassett was the one who told Norman Kirk that something needed to be done and the minute was passed. I am sure he will give submissions to the select committee and no doubt this piece of history will come forward and become substantiated as the real thing as the years go by. I give credit to Dr Michael Bassett for always mentioning this for some reason or other when we were having discussions. I am very pleased to see it being brought up to date. 
Of course there is one question that does cross my mind. I suppose there is no possibility of deceased authors being recognised in any way in New Zealand. This bill seems to apply only to living authors. Often we give credit to deceased authors so that was just a thought that went through my mind. Maybe we have never done it in the past and maybe we will never do it in the future but perhaps some sort of recognition might be given to their estates. 
We have done very well in recent years internationally—Lloyd Jones who is no relation with his  
Book of Fame 
 and of course his most recent book  
Mister Pip 
. He is Bob Jones’ brother. Of course we should now say that Bob Jones is the brother of Lloyd Jones because Lloyd Jones surely is much more famous although having said that I am sure Bob Jones might write a book on it to dispute the fact. I say good luck to both of them for being authors in New Zealand and both of them being entitled to receive a dollar or two although I am sure Sir Bob Jones would donate it to an appropriate charity being the nice kind of bloke that he is. 
Other authors are Margaret Mahy and her works  
The Lion in the Meadow 
  
The Boy With Two Shadows 
 and  
The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate 
. These books are very well read amongst a certain sector of the population—very young people. She has done extremely well in New Zealand and I think she is even published overseas. As the previous speaker Chris Finlayson was saying and as the Minister was saying I believe we need to export some of our work and full credit to her. Keri Hulme has been mentioned as has Joy Cowley who wrote  
The Silent One 
 and the poet Witi Ihimaera whom my son studied at school and of course Bill Manhire who wrote  
Dawn/Water. 
 Let us not forget Maurice Gee the author of  
In My Father’s Den. 
 I think that has been made into a film as well. That sort of credit and encouragement needs to be given to New Zealand authors and the Authors’ Fund will clearly be one way of doing it. 
I had the misfortune perhaps of suggesting to an English literature teacher that there is one author who does not get enough credit in New Zealand and that is Barry Crump who has long since passed away. I did suggest while Barry was still alive to a literature teacher at a school that students should study him. She was complaining about boys not studying literature and not reading. So I said: “Why not give them Barry Crump?” but for some reason she was absolutely horrified. I feel that there is a snobbery around sometimes and that books that boys will read are sometimes not made available in schools because they are not highbrow enough. But I read  
A Good Keen Man 
 and one or two others and they flowed well. I can almost see people turning up their noses already at my view of literature when I suggest Barry Crump but books are there to be read and if people are not reading them then maybe that is a criticism of the book itself. 
I take the point raised by the previous speaker as far as the regulation provisions of this bill are concerned. I said that provision was unbelievable and I am pleased the member took up that issue. I have never seen a regulations clause in a bill as small as this. There are only 17 struggling clauses in the bill and the regulations clause clause 10 has 10 subclauses all of its own. I wonder whether any work was actually given to the preparation of this bill. The things that are set out in clause 10 “Matters that may be dealt with in regulations” should really have been taken into account. However let us give credit as the saying goes. The Minister has taken the trouble to prepare the bill. It is on its way. The problem with this institution is that if something never reaches Parliament it never will. If we can get something into Parliament we have something that Parliament and one of the various select committees can work on and improve. I take Sue Kedgley’s view that now that we have a bill we can of course criticise this regulations clause but we can work on it and the select committee can work on it. We can ensure we know who an author is and define what a book is and perhaps extend the matter to CDs and such like as the Minister has said. 
Some praise was given to academic historians and their contributions to writing. I find that the most boring histories ever written are those written by academic historians. 
Hon Judith Tizard 
: Keith Sinclair’s  
A History of New Zealand 
 was a wonderful book. 
DAIL JONES 
: Keith Sinclair’s work on Walter Nash really put me off Keith Sinclair totally. Keith Sinclair was my favourite lecturer at Auckland University. He had a marvellous command of the English language. If people read his autobiography  
Halfway Round the Harbour 
 which I have read and which I have in my library at home they would believe it was Keith Sinclair talking to them. But reading his history of Walter Nash was utterly dreary and boring and if it was not for the fact that he found some Security Intelligence Service papers in his garage no one would ever have known that Keith Sinclair had written a book on Walter Nash. Maybe that is some of the hype that goes around as publicity. Historians should almost give up writing history books. Some of the other people who have written books on New Zealand—and there are plenty of them—make it so much more enjoyable compared with the likes of with due respect even Michael Bassett and my favourite lecturer ever Keith Sinclair. 
New Zealand First supports this bill. We look forward to a considerable amount of work being done on it at the select committee because a considerable amount of work is required. But I congratulate the Minister on bringing the bill to the House and giving us something to work on. New Zealand First will be doing all it can to ensure that the authors of New Zealand receive at least the amount of recognition they deserve if not even more.