Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It is an honour to rise and speak to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. Now I understand that about 33 countries have actually ratified this treaty and that includes Australia Canada Chile India and Singapore.What does this treaty do however? It is known as the Marrakesh Treaty because the actual name is quite long. What it does is provide an international framework for the production and the dissemination of copies of books and of other literary works in formats that are particularly accessible to people with a print disability. So that includes those who are blind those who have a visual impairment that cannot be rectified with the use of glasses and those who have a physical disability that prevents them from being able to read a book. This treaty is about fairness. It's about being inclusive as a society. It's about being ambitious for all New Zealanders and actually ensuring that all New Zealanders can participate fully in public life.We understand that there are about 168000 New Zealanders who have a print disability and we know that it is difficult for those with disabilities including visual impairments and other print disabilities to participate in public life. We know that they're twice as likely to be either unemployed or underemployed.Just last week I met with an organisation whose national office is based in Onehunga in the Maungakiekie electorate where I'm based. They've got branches across the country. I'm referring to the ELEVATE Christian Disability Trust. I met with members of this trust last week and they gave me some really concrete examples of how their members feel underutilised in society. Those who are applying for a job feel that their opportunities are limited largely because of how employers perceive them and their ability to contribute in the role that they're being considered for or in many cases not being considered for unfortunately. I've also grown up with close family members who've had visual impairments and been unable to hold a book or read a book especially later in life and so we know that this treaty has the power to change the lives of so many.I also want to acknowledge as speakers before me have done the work of the Blind Foundation. They've actually been pushing for New Zealand to accede to this treaty for many years and it is in that sense also an honour to be able to speak in the House to this treaty.So now what does the Marrakesh Treaty do? It requires member States to provide copyright exemptions that allow authorised entities to make and distribute accessible format copies of literary and artistic works in their own countries without seeking the permission of the copyright owners. It also allows these member countries to export these accessible format copies to other member countries and allows them to also import them and therein lies a huge benefit to New Zealand. It allows us to export if we were to ratify this treaty New Zealand content around the world to member countries and it allows them to export to us as well.Some have suggested that we just tweak New Zealand's existing copyright regime. Why can't we do that?" they ask. Section 69 of the Copyright Act 1994 does provide an exemption to prescribed bodies—which I was shocked to learn were actually only two—to make accessible format copies of literary and dramatic works for people who have a print disability without needing to seek the permission of copyright owners. So people have asked "If we already have this ability why don't we just go with that?" But there are some issues to this. There are issues of cost. It is hugely expensive. I think as we heard before from the Minister Jenny Salesa it can cost up to $6000 to transform or to translate or to make accessible books and other literary works. So it's very expensive. It's cost prohibitive in some cases. It's time consuming. It takes quite a lot of time to make that happen and there are too few organisations. There are only a small number of organisations that are prescribed bodies under section 69 and these organisations serve only a small subset of people with a print disability. This means that a large majority of New Zealanders who have a print disability continue to miss out. They continue to have very limited access to accessible format copies.Now what are the amendments that are required to the Copyright Act 1994 in order for us to accede to this treaty? A lot of them we actually already comply with. We will retain provisions that are laid out in section 69. However there are some amendments that are required before we can actually accede to this treaty. Some of them are quite explicit. So I'm just going to read them out from the Commerce Committee's report. So the amendments that will be required to align the current section 69 with the Marrakesh Treaty include explicitly providing for the "import and export of accessible format copies" to and from New Zealand and other countries parties to the Marrakesh Treaty.Actually at this point I just want to add that from some of the advocacy work that the Blind Foundation has done specifically on this I was actually quite shocked to find out that in some cases we've got students who have print disabilities and are finding it really difficult or impossible to access school textbooks that they require to continue with their education. Those who want to learn for example a different language are struggling to be able to access books in those languages in New Zealand. And I think that's actually absolutely unfair and unacceptable. If I wanted to learn a language it would be extremely easy for me—well not extremely easy to learn the language but extremely easy for me to access the materials that I would need in order for me to do that and I feel that the same should be applicable to everyone including those with print disabilities.So back to the amendments noted in the report. Another amendment is to "extend the definition of 'works' (to which the section 69 exemption applies) to include artistic works;". We would also need to expand the conditions applied to prescribed bodies in section 69 as I mentioned before. My understanding is that prescribed bodies is limited to two entities so we would have to expand the conditions and the exception to include "the maintenance of due care in and records of its handling of copies of works;". Finally another amendment would clarify that the definition of a person with print disability includes "individuals who have a visual impairment or perceptual or reading disability which cannot be improved to give substantially similar function as a person without such an impairment." and that's the point that I was alluding to previously in my example of wanting to learn a different language.Many countries have a disability exception to copyright infringement but there is a need for an international instrument that allows for cross-border distribution of accessible format copies and that's what we're discussing here. This treaty has come about after four years of intense negotiations among member States. And I've also got to conclude on the note that I'm actually extremely proud to be standing on this side of the House part of a Government that's actually pushing this forward because one of the concerns of the Blind Foundation was that the previous Government was not giving this due importance and that it would slip down the priority list and actually get lost amongst some of the other work.We consider this extremely important. As I mentioned at the start it's about fairness it's about inclusion it's about inclusivity and it's about ensuring that all New Zealanders have the right to access the information that they need to enhance their dignity and their well-being. So I'd like to commend this to the House. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker."