Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Madam Chair. I don't know why I bother asking the Minister any questions because he didn't bother to answer last time. What I've found with the Minister is that a few quips here and there doesn't actually mean that he's done his work on it. We've seen in this particular bill—I've made submissions to the Minister. I wrote to the Minister on 16 June seeking a meeting to discuss the changes to the Plant Variety Rights Bill proposed by both Zespri and T&G Global in their letter to the Minister on 22 March. I also sent him copies of three Supplementary Order Papers relating to those changes. I received a reply from the Minister 2½ months later today—today; the day that the bill is being discussed—to say No it's not perfect. It's not perfect but it would take too long." Well it took 2½ months to write that letter so I suppose it would probably take another 2½ years to discuss it with stakeholders. The letter itself talks about "Revisiting the issues raised by Zespri and T&G Global would involve going back to stakeholders and conducting a further analysis of the impact of proposed changes." OK so we know we're going to be back here again having to fix this up again. It reminds me of the Credit Contract—what was it called? The Credit Contract Finance or something—Chris Bishop: The CCCFA.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The CCCFA—yeah—or something. We ended up back here having destroyed people's hopes of getting homes. So anyway coming back to this bill and the Supplementary Order Papers these are relatively minor changes—Hon Member: It's the same Minister. Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The same Minister—the same Minister. Too clever—by words—to have a meeting too clever to talk to the industry and too clever to consult with the actual stakeholders who by the way we're very lucky to have. They're able to still export despite the fact that they couldn't get enough workers in to actually pick the fruit in the first place and they're now paying a penalty for that because fruit was picked too late. Those same people who he doesn't have time to meet with—maybe they should have talked about a biking trip or something and he could have been there and met you on the biking track. They've asked to extend the term of the actual licence from 25 to 30 years and the Minister has come back and said "Well that could affect other people." Yeah it might well affect other people who want to compete against our New Zealand interests. The amendment to clause 14 that I've put up on Supplementary Order Paper 200 inserting subclause (2A) is: "to 'authorise another person' includes where—(a) the authorising party was outside New Zealand at the time of authorising; but (b) the restricted act occurred in New Zealand." Well this all comes from that court case the Court of Appeal decision in Gao v Zespri Group Ltd [2021] NZCA 442. That clarified that restricted acts occurring in New Zealand even if authorised by parties overseas are within both the scope of New Zealand courts' jurisdiction and the territorial nature of plant variety rights as contemplated in the actual treaty. So if we think about it that is actually that case where New Zealand plant stock was stolen and taken to China and then used to compete against us and this Minister thinks Zespri doesn't know what it's talking about. I think it does know what it's talking about and I think it is something where the Minister writing to me and saying "Well we need to get it through because everything else is too late on our response as a Government to UPOV-91." Well too late—whose fault is that? Is it Zespri's fault? Is it T&G's fault? Is it the New Zealand producers' fault? No it's his fault and they're having to pay for it. Instead of taking notice of them in March this year—which was followed up by a letter from me because they couldn't get to him—he was too busy to meet on that too. Maybe he should just give up his portfolios and give them to one of these other young thrusters they've got over there like Glen Bennett. He's a nice young person. I'm sure he'd be keen for it. Jamie Strange—he'd be keen for it—or Ginny Andersen. These people—I'm sure they'd love to have the job if he's too busy to meet with some of the senior stakeholders not only in this area but actually in the country. Chris Bishop: What about Rachel Boyack? Hon JUDITH COLLINS: What about Rachel Boyack? She'd be brilliant for at least two months. Thank you."