Coffey Tamati; Dean JacquiPLANT VARIETY RIGHTS BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 18 May.TĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I appreciate that. Yes we were interrupted last night. This was the last item on the agenda and I'm happy to be picking it up today. This is an important bill that we are talking about the Plant Variety Rights Bill. I'm incredibly supportive of this and so is the Waitangi Tribunal who back in 2011 put together a report called Ko Aotearoa Tēnei. In that report they noted that Māori have a special right and privilege to be able to access taonga and we consider taonga to be things like plant varieties as well. Now as we traverse into this space know that this conversation has been around for a long time so for people out there that may be listening to this debate tonight they will be seeing it as incredibly welcoming. The stakeholders in particular that are interested in this particular plant varieties bill and the whole regime: aside from iwi and hapū you've also got plant breeders both local and foreign; distributors of new plant varieties both locally and foreign bred and products harvested from them in New Zealand; and also users of new plant varieties protected by plant variety rights (PVRs) including farmers orchardists and growers.Now once upon a time new plant varieties and the research and development into them was absolutely the domain of Crown research institutes. They used to do the lion's share of this kind of work but more and more as time has gone on they've been doing less of it and there's been the introduction of commercial companies that have been coming in looking to stamp their mark. Actually Māori are part of that equation too. I want to take a moment to tell the House—and yourself Madam Speaker—about a real good-news story back home in the Bay of Plenty where I live— Angie Warren-Clark: Our mighty bay.TĀMATI COFFEY: —where we live! There is a collective of Māori food producers and the one that I'm referring to is an organisation a collective called Miro—M-I-R-O. What they do is they make berries. Now the miro berry is a traditional berry here in New Zealand very favoured by the kererū. Although don't eat it—not those ones anyway—because you will get very sick. However the new innovative people at Miro the collective have actually embarked on their own little blueberry. Now what makes this very special is that they have managed to develop the IP and they own the IP. When I say they" I mean the 20 Māori trusts iwi entities that are scattered all across from the top of the North Island to the top of the South Island from the East Coast to Taranaki on the West. There is a collective of Māori land trusts and incorporations that are currently growing Miro berries. I was fortunate enough to go for a visit to one of their sites in Te Teko of all places. It's a hearty place old "Texas" and if you blink you miss it but you definitely know when you're driving through it. But actually if you just take a couple of roads off to the side you'll end up in what's been transformed from what was an empty paddock with very meagre returns to suddenly a Miro berry orchard. And obviously the returns are set to be exponentially larger than what they had in those paddocks before. I want to acknowledge the Miro collective and talk about them and the journey that they're on but they will be very pleased to hear about this—to know that actually when it comes to Māori rights and interests over our taonga species this bill is actually looking after that. And of course it was off the back of the Waitangi Tribunal report—Ko Aotearoa Tēnei—in which they talked about the PVR plant variety rights regime. In the Wai 262 report they recommended that the regime be amended to include the ability to refuse the grant of a PVR if this would affect kaitiaki relationships with taonga species—number one. It's incredibly important because one of the fears was that actually through any kind of revision of the plant variety rights regime Māori interests would not be looked after. They will be very pleased to hear that that has been accepted and incorporated into this bill. So if kaitiaki do feel as though they are having their rights impinged upon then they are actually able to raise concern and they can do that through the second recommendation from the report which was the establishment of a Māori advisory committee in which they could advise the commissioner of PVRs on that matter.Over the course of this bill and its different iterations and the various consultations we've actually made sure that that committee—that Māori advisory committee which will deal with any kinds of infringements or any kinds of concerns that kaitiaki raise as a concern—will be dealing with that. We've given them through the bill decision-making powers rather than just advisory powers as well which is also a strengthening of that relationship and again another example where the Crown is being a good partner with Māori. This is part of it actually. Consideration around this has been around the Treaty of Waitangi Te Tiriti and our obligations in relation to the plant variety rights regime but also as some speakers have already mentioned on this particular topic our obligations under the CPTPP—there are a lot of Ps in there. Obviously we have certain obligations in that as well. Now the current regime—the plant variety rights regime—is currently over 30 years old. So when you look at our obligations under Te Tiriti our obligations under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and also our need to address a 30-year-old bill that needed to be hauled into the new century that's the bill that we're discussing now. I'm very glad that Māori rights have been considered in that. As I said the organisation that I talked about earlier Miro you can better believe with a strengthening of rights for that relationship between Māori and our taonga will be preserved well into the future so that other organisations just like Miro will continue to be able to help realise the aspirations of their lands. Yes it's OK if you want to have maize on your section; sure it's nice if you want to put some corn on there; but actually there are some high-value horticulture products that are just as accessible and just as feasible to have on Māori land blocks all across the North Island with the right conditions.Under the last Government we also invested in this through the Provincial Growth Fund. Our Minister for—at the time—employment skills and development the Hon Willie Jackson went to Morrinsville and he helped to launch this programme and helped to also announce the funding that we were going to put into it to help them get on their feet. I hope well into the future that organisations like Miro and the other "Miro" companies yet to come will absolutely take advantage and appreciate the work that's gone into this the Plant Variety Rights Bill that we're discussing at the moment. I have no problems recommending this to the House. Kia ora.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Five-minute call—the Hon Michael Woodhouse."