Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. The National Party will be voting for this bill at the first reading. As my previous speaker from the National Party has asserted we have some issues primarily around the role of the Māori advisory group and what role that committee will hold and whether that is consistent with other uses of Māori advisory committees in other legislation. So that is the primary focus I think that we as a party would like to see settled at select committee. Also at select committee we will take an interest in seeing what the submissions are from those in the sector because it's all right for everybody in this House to talk about what kiwifruit they may have eaten but the reality is that there will be some experts in the sector that will want to make submissions and as parliamentarians it's important that we listen to those submissions and take them into account to make sure this legislation is actually fit for purpose.So the starting point I guess is our arable sector and it is part of our farming sector that is not often given much focus. You know the focus always goes on those sectors that export product whether it's milk or kiwifruit or such like—our commodity and value-added production that we sell in the rest of the world. But underscoring that is a very solid and successful arable sector in New Zealand that provides a lot of the plant varieties it provides a lot of the grass seeds it provides a lot of the feed sources for the cows that produce the milk and also as my colleague from Hamilton talked about some of the fruit varieties that we use in New Zealand as well aren't directly from arable but they are from that plant and food research - type nature. So the arable sector is one I want to put a bit of a plug in for tonight because they aren't often recognised because they're not often the end point in the New Zealand export machine but they provide a very vital role in the New Zealand export machine and enabling those later export industries to actually achieve their goals. So I'm really going to be very interested to see when that sector comes before the Parliament and the select committee that they are happy with this legislation that it covers off any of the issues that they may think need to be sorted out in this area.Plant variety rights are very important when you consider the scale of some of the sectors in New Zealand. Most people don't understand how strong our seed businesses are—you know from carrot seeds and especially in South Canterbury you can see the clover and the grass seeds that are grown down there and even the very unique seeds that are looked over in some of our research institutes towards dealing with some of the climate change issues that we will have to deal with as a country going forward. So it has a lot of important repercussions and we need to make sure that we protect those rights for New Zealand producers and New Zealand scientists and New Zealand farmers. So that is vital and it has got a protection role there.But it has also got a very commercial role as well because what you're starting to see in a lot of intellectual property (IP) arrangements now is that there will be a cost per use of that IP rather than just purchase of the IP in the initial stage. So we want to make sure that this bill is reflective of what the sector sees as the rules that they want to see progress in that part of the equation. So you know rather than in the past where traditionally IP has been a one-off payment and then you've got the use of something now there is much more of a trend towards clipping the ticket on every use of that IP. So I'd be interested to see how that relates to the rules in this as well. I think that we will be at the mercy I guess of the experts in the sector when they come in front of Parliament in the select committee to give their views on this legislation. Until we have that many in this House won't be able to make too much judgment on the efficacy of this legislation in front of us. We understand what the Government is doing here; we're taking them at their word you could say in the sense of where it's going and the international obligations that they're trying to achieve here. We do have serious concerns around their Māori advisory committee. It's important that we take into account Māori views but it's also important that we also have the flexibility in that arrangement so that there is that commercial rigour and desire to grow and that that is not stifled in any way by attempts to take ownership in a different way when we're talking about ownership of that intellectual property.So that's a crucial issue for us and we look forward to seeing how that develops through the select committee process and we would encourage the Government to look at having consistency in that approach with other parts of legislation rather than as it first appears in this legislation which is taking it further from other advisory committees that we've seen. So National Party supports this legislation but tonight it's a big shout-out to our arable farmers out there. They do a fantastic job often not recognised but they provide a lot of the intellectual property and the skills and the seeds that make this country prosper and grow. So I think it's well worth this Parliament thanking them and recognising their great work and hopefully in this legislation we can add more value to that sector and other primary producing sectors as well. Thank you Madam Speaker.