Brownlee Gerry: Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4660] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (NZ National—Ilam) 
: 
 This bill does none of the things that Mr Carter has just claimed it does. However it is the crowning glory of the “Ministry of Judith Tizard”. To prevent people from seeing videos in a timely fashion is the summit of her achievements so far. It is a draconian bill of the worst kind and it typifies what this Government is all about. This is a Government that wants to send New Zealand back to somewhere into the mid-1960s when New Zealand was heavily regulated and controlled and lulled into some sort of docile sense that the Government knew better than anybody else. 
We should not underestimate the signal that this bill sends about the way this Government wants to operate. How can it be fair to anybody in this country to say that we need to be locked off from the rest of the world being unable to access the sort of at-home entertainment that we would like to choose for ourselves? 
I think back to those times when New Zealand was a heavily regulated country and when that sort of thing was commonplace. At that time anybody who had a bit of a business idea simply got to know his or her local member of Parliament and then got to know the member’s colleagues. The person would build up a bit of a lobby and sooner or later he or she would get some little sinecure somewhere because of the high level of Government-initiated protection around his or her business. Those days in this country were not good. I can remember an example that I think some people here might find strange. There was a time when children in this country could not get felt pens unless they were brought in from Australia. Mr Key will remember this. Felt pens were amazing things and the only way to get hold of them was if a person was lucky enough to know someone who was travelling overseas who could buy those things in the duty-free store when leaving another country. We are going back to that. 
Simon Power 
: Bread was like that too. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: No it has never been quite like that. There was a time when bread was rationed in New Zealand—there is no doubt about that—but that was certainly not in Mr Power’s lifetime. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: When was bread rationed in New Zealand? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: In asking such a simple and silly question the Minister is showing what a vacuum of knowledge he works in. I am not giving the Minister an answer to something like that because I know that what he is really doing is sitting there thinking “Perhaps that can be my idea of the week.” 
In the Labour caucus we first had Annette King coming along and saying: “Right I can really annoy New Zealanders by saying I’m not going to let them smoke in public bars Returned Services Association bars casinos or working men’s clubs—that will brass them off. That is a good bit of regulation that I can bring in.” Then she got outdone by Judith Tizard who has come along and said: “I’m going to stop New Zealanders seeing videos and listening to DVDs and other recordings for the first 9 months that they are available—that will really brass them off.” Then we see Pete Hodgson sitting there thinking: “I’ve got one that’s even better. Not only am I going to turn out the lights on this country—not only am I going to enhance my reputation as ‘blackout Pete’—but I’m now going to bring in a bread-rationing measure.”  
[Interruption]  
The Minister of Conservation is going to save bread in New Zealand! 
The whole point about the bill is that it is typical of what this Government likes to do—control control control. I do not doubt that once the Smoke-free Environments (Enhanced Protection) Amendment Bill is passed we will see a return to 6 o’clock closing for all hotels and other hostelries around the country. I was going to say “hostilities” but that would be too reflective of the Government. Not only will we see that sort of thing happen but I make a prediction that if that particular bill goes through this House in 10 years’ time we will see a move to have alcohol-free bars. Members laugh but 10 years ago no one would have said we would have smoke-free bars. They would have said: “No that will never happen. You’ll get cigarette smoking out of all sorts of places in New Zealand but you’ll always be able to have a smoke at the RSA and the working men’s club.” But the Labour Government has said: “No we’re going to get rid of that.” Members should not doubt that in 10 years’ time the Labour caucus will have whipped themselves into such a stupor—of course they will be in Opposition by then and they will have been there for a long time—as to say that they want to have alcohol-free days. That is the sort of thing that comes out of this type of legislation. 
One of the most interesting things I have noted here is that some of the provisions we have around parallel importing annoy the United States. It does not like us having parallel importing available on many things. It does not like the protections we have around Pharmac. Those are things that we can discuss and work our way through. It seems to me that this bill is a pathetic little attempt to say: “We don’t support you in international relations. We don’t think you’re doing a good job on behalf of the world. We will however try to get a free-trade agreement with you by bringing in pathetic little bits of legislation that limit New Zealanders’ rights to freely choose the entertainment they wish to see—films videos and DVDs—in a timely fashion.” This is a terrible bill and I am very proud that the National Party is not supporting it.