Mallard Trevor: Patents Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Patents Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:12950. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): I would like to start off by absolutely disagreeing with my colleague the chief whip Chris Hipkins. I know that will not do me much good but if he had looked carefully at this Patents Bill especially clause 10 he would know that Tau Henare is not patentable because to be patentable you have got to be useful. You have got to be useful. Clause 10 states: “An invention so far as claimed in a claim is ‘useful’ if the invention has a specific credible and substantial utility.” And any suggestion that Tau Henare has a specific a credible or a substantial utility can only be a lie—can only be a lie—and therefore there is no question that Tau Henare is patentable.I think it is also worth having a good look at clause 9 of the bill “Disclosure to be disregarded in certain circumstances”. I think this is something that Mr Henare could have a good look at because it is an area that he would be particularly interested in. What it does is go to things being obtained unlawfully or in breach of confidence. I invite Mr Henare to consider his relationship with his leader and matters of confidence—and matters of confidence. I think it is fair to say that members on this side of the Chamber had a lot more confidence in him when he was attempting to elevate hisstatus than the Prime Minister did and I want to just thank the Hon Tau Henare for the disclosures that he made in that particular area—the disclosures that he made to the House and the disclosures that he made to the country about his availability.Andrew Williams: He’s gone quiet.Hon TREVOR MALLARD: Yes he has gone quiet.I am going to accept that it has been a long time since I had a look at this bill. I think that the last time I had a detailed look at it Simon Power was the Minister of Commerce. I note that this lazy Minister of Commerce has not progressed it at all. In fact he has not progressed it far enough even to put his own name on the bill. Craig Foss has got his name on the Order Paper but he has not worked hard enough on this bill has not made enough progress on the bill and has not made a proper contribution even to the extent that when one goes to the title page of the bill. We see that it is still in the name of the Hon Simon Power.Hon Member: On the cover it is.Hon TREVOR MALLARD: No no it is not on the front. I am working by the report-back copy.I do want to say thank you to the Minister though on the question of the information and communications technology programming issues around patents—the fact that in the end he got to the right decision. I think it is fair to say that as someone who has been involved in both patents and earlier in the copyright area mine was one of the in-boxes that tended to act as a magnet to the objections when the Minister attempted to overturn the decisions of the Commerce Committee and I do want to say that I think that the select committee worked hard on it.I think it is also fair to say that the select committee was much less influenced by overseas information and communications technology companies than were the Minister and a number of the officials. Without making any specific comment I think we do need to watch very very carefully the influence of the major information and communications technology companies in this area.I am looking forward to the contribution of the Hon Maurice Williamson in this area because I know that he is someone who has quite a good knowledge in this area. He did some programs himself which probably had copyright on them. They involved the National Party’s canvassing system. Unfortunately he left them in George Hawkins’ office at one stage I think along with a floppy disk that had a letter to the transport department asking to be let off a fine for speeding in a period before he was a Minister. So I think it is fair to say that these things are relatively easily discoverable especially if people are careless and leave their floppy disks down the back of the couch as the Hon Maurice Williamson did.This is getting towards being a good bill. There are some important Supplementary Order Papers. There are a couple that the Labour Party will not support. I do want to indicate that I am slightly surprised with one of the later Green Supplementary Order Papers in that it does not appear to be drafted in a way that addresses the interpretation section of the bill. Although Supplementary Order Paper 348 is attempting to take the “advisory” out of “Māori advisory committee” the Supplementary Order Paper is slightly sloppily drafted in that it does not address Part 1 in the way that it probably should if it was carefully drafted and if there had been consultation on it. I am not saying that if there had been consultation on it we would have supported it. Probably we would not—givingMāori a veto over patents is something we are not up to yet. Listening hearing taking advice is important but I think taking the word “advisory” out of the “Māori advisory committee”—I am going to be interested to see how the Hon Tau Henare votes on that particular amendment—Hon Tau Henare: I’ll be voting with the Government brother just like you.Hon TREVOR MALLARD: He is going to be on my side again. On that note I will leave it to my colleagues.