Smith Nick: Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Smith Nick: Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 I want to respond to a few of the points that have been raised by members to add to the debate we are having this evening. The first of those I want to respond to is from the Green Party and Gareth Hughes. There is a fundamental problem for Green Party members: they do not understand that rights go with responsibility. It does not matter what area of endeavour it is in. With this area of the Internet the Greens are very strong on rights but very light on responsibilities. I have a question for the Green Party. In our law governing our transport system we have a right for people to drive a car. But also we have in our law the responsibility that goes with that right. The ultimate sanction for the courts is to take someone’s driver’s licence from them and to prohibit that person from driving for the broader public good. Frankly our road transport system which requires order would not operate without that sanction. 
We could look to another sector such as telephones. The member rightly says that telephones are historically a basic right. Telephones have become a pretty essential part of life. Yet in our laws it is possible that if somebody abuses the privilege of a telephone—they use it for improper purpose they make abusive phone calls and the like—the courts have the power to take away that person’s telephone as the ultimate sanction for not respecting that right and the responsibilities that go with it. 
We have other areas—for instance radio telecommunications using old walkie-talkies and those sorts of forms of early communications. Again there are rights there that are balanced with responsibility. This bill provides a whole lot more checks about the steps that need to be gone through. But ultimately we are saying that if we cannot control the Wild West and the abuse of copyright then the law needs to have the ultimate sanction to be able to suspend a person’s Internet connection. This Government brings to this debate that proper trade-off that goes into a society with rights and responsibilities. 
I also want to respond to some of the points made by David Parker because I really think they exposed some pretty flawed thinking. David Parker argued that copyright is a monopoly. I think the member has it all wrong. Copyright is actually about a private property right. If a person such as Dave Dobbyn creates a magnificent piece of music such as “Loyal” do we oppose his being able to control the distribution and use of that music? Is he exhibiting monopoly rights over his creation? How is that different to me expressing my monopoly rights over the house I own the monopoly rights I have over my car or the monopoly rights I have over a creation I make as an engineer in my field of endeavour? I really think that for Labour to align copyright with a monopoly right is a flawed perspective. 
David Parker was a Minister of Energy in the previous Labour Government. He was in charge of the electricity network when we saw the highest price increases ever in the history of New Zealand—a 72 percent increase in power prices. The gall! He now stands up in this Chamber and lectures a Government that is seeing substantially less increase and I have the figures. During Labour’s period in Government power prices went up by 8 percent per year. In the first 2 years of this Government they have gone up by 4 percent per year on average. I ask members to remember that that includes the introduction of the emissions trading scheme and the increase in GST. I say to members of the Labour Opposition— 
Raymond Huo 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. What the Minister is trying to say has nothing to do with the current bill. It has no relevance whatsoever. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The Minister is replying to previous issues raised in the debate. He can do that for a little while. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: It was Mr Parker who somehow in this debate introduced the issue of power prices. I just wanted to tell the Committee a few home truths about what has been going on in that sector. I can understand that if I was a Labour member I would be pretty defensive and would not want to hear a few hard facts about what has actually happened with power prices. 
I stress again that I think Simon Power the Commerce Committee and the officials have done a really balanced sensible job on this important bill.