Shaw James: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShaw James: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5330. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that “New Zealand is never going to sign up to the TPP unless we believe it is in New Zealand’s best interests”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.James Shaw: Is it in the best interests of New Zealand’s $32 billion information and communications technology sector that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement requires changes to the Copyright Act that would disallow reverse engineering of software for interoperability purposes?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Given that the deal has not even been concluded yet I cannot go into the individual parts. What I can say is that the overall statement from the Government stands true. We are not going to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement unless we believe that it is in the best interests of New Zealand on the balance of benefits. But I would have thought that the opportunity to have free trade with the United States Japan Mexico Canada and other countries puts us in a very very strong position.James Shaw: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was in relation to New Zealand’s $32 billion information and communications technology sector.Mr SPEAKER: I heard the question and the essence of the answer that I heard from the Prime Minister is that he cannot really comment on that because the matter is still under negotiation. That addresses the question.James Shaw: Does he agree with the lawyer for Vattenfall the German nuclear power company currently suing the German Government that if countries do not want to be sued by multinational corporations they should not sign up for agreements containing investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms like the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No New Zealand has had investor-State dispute resolutionin successive free-trade agreements including in the New Zealand - China Free Trade Agreement signed by the previous Labour Government. The important part is having safeguards included in that.James Shaw: If as calculated by the Parliamentary Library the benefit to New Zealand’s dairy sector is only $37 million a year by 2025 or 0.01 percent of GDP while the cost to Pharmac from patent extensions is up to $50 million a year will he still sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: This is the problem with the Greens’ economic analysis and research. You are using the Parliamentary Library to model something that even I do not know the details of yet. So guess what? If you put rubbish information in you get rubbish information out. Actually the member who has done a little bit of this stuff in his previous career is way better than this. He would never have done this for a client.Andrew Little: Does he stand by today’s statement about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and prescription drugs that “patents will run for a little bit longer and that means the Government will have to pay for the original drug as opposed to the generic”; if so can he guarantee that this will not mean higher costs to taxpayers for subsidised medicines higher costs to patients for non-subsidised medicines or a risk that some medicines will no longer be subsidised due to the increased Budget pressure?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I can guarantee that consumers will not pay more. I think that it is highly unlikely actually that the Government will have to pay any more through Pharmac. But on the basis that it had to pay a tiny bit more the Government would fund that increase because actually what would end up happening is that the Government would earn a lot more revenue through tax revenue. That is why David Shearer Phil Goff and David Parker—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! That is not necessary for the answer.James Shaw: What specifically would it take for him to walk away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: If I did not believe that the deal was in New Zealand’s best interests.