Smith StuartCOPYRIGHT (MARRAKESH TREATY IMPLEMENTATION) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 23 July.STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well it's a pleasure to speak on the Copyright (Marrakesh Treaty Implementation) Amendment Bill. I didn't have the pleasure of being on the select committee that heard this bill—Andrew Falloon: It's a very good committee.STUART SMITH: —but I have moved on to that committee now and as my colleague Mr Falloon says it is a great committee and I'm really looking forward to a long tenure on that select committee although I will miss Primary Production I have to say.This is a really important bill because there are 168000 New Zealanders who have print disabilities. It's kind of a strange name for that but it isn't just for blind people or the visually impaired; there are other impairments that can make conventional printed documents very difficult to read—books or publications.This process started under the National Government in 2015—a very good Government of course—with a discussion document going out. There were a number of submissions—353 people provided feedback directly to the Blind Foundation—and that set this process under way. In fact in June of 2017 the National Government announced that we would enjoin that treaty. At the same time the Government announced that BLENNZ which is the Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand would become a prescribed body under that copyright regulation which is a requirement in that treaty. So the process was well under way and it has been a very important part of this bill.Now why we're doing this is because to get a Braille copy of a book or a publication can cost $5000 and that puts a huge impost on people who have a disability and really impairs their access to publications that we all take for granted. So this treaty allows for the very strict copyright legislation—we've agreed to change our very strict Copyright Act—to allow cross-border movement of publications that have been modified so that people with visual impairments can have access to them across the border in a different way than they would be for conventionally printed documents. This is a hugely important access issue that we need to get through and we are going to do that today or in part.I think the main part of the bill which I would like to turn to now which the select committee made a recommendation on was to replace section 69 of the Copyright Act with the new sections 69 69A through 69D. That included provisions that permitted but didn't require the Marrakesh Treaty. One was the commercial availability test. That's quite an important test as part of this bill. That in the past was quite a steep and harsh test to meet. They could only make or import an accessible format copy of a work if they have made reasonable efforts to obtain a commercially available format copy and they have been unable to obtain an accessible format copy within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price. That test was quite onerous.It's quite interesting to note the commercial availability test under that Marrakesh Treaty. There are a number of countries that do not have that test including the United States and the European Union and of the 55 Marrakesh Treaty countries as of April of this year only four—that's Australia Singapore Canada and Japan—have that test. So it seems quite nonsensical that we would require that test when those other countries don't. So it's I think a major part of the bill and it's a very important part. I'm really pleased to see that go through in there. This is an important part of our people having—everyone having—the same access to documents and books and publications that we all enjoy and take for granted quite frankly. So we should be passing this bill. So with that I commend it to the House.