Ryall Tony: Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Ryall Tony: Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9404] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 The effect of Part 2—while described by the Government as only technical—is that a registered trademark will not be infringed by the use of the trademark on parallel imported goods where a trademark has been applied to the goods that have been put on the market anywhere else in the world. The National Party’s concerns with this part of the bill relate to the fact that we do not believe that the Government should be trusted in making these sorts of changes. We think that the cavalier attitude displayed by the Government in earlier parts prevent it from being given the trust of the Committee in respect of any other amendment. We are concerned because we simply do not believe that the Government has any commitment to the benefits of parallel importing. 
 It is clear when we read the pages and pages of documentation we received under the Official Information Act that this Government does not believe in the benefits that parallel importing has given the consumers of New Zealand. This Committee needs to be reminded that the Labour Party in Opposition opposed the legislation that brought parallel importing into New Zealand and dropped the prices on a whole lot of consumer items up and down this country. Previously exclusive rights saw a number of holders of those rights extract extraordinary rents and premiums on the goods and services on which they held those rights and that was paid for by ordinary New Zealanders. As a consequence of the previous National Government moving to open up parallel importing in New Zealand we have seen a dramatic improvement in choice for ordinary people and for business in this country. 
What is the consequence of that? The consequence of that is we have managed not only to reduce the inputs to many businesses in New Zealand but to open up the quality and the variety of goods that ordinary New Zealanders are able to purchase and that was opposed by the Labour Party in Opposition. Labour members believe that any opening up of trade has to be bad. That is the argument they made in the debates. They argued that we should support the sort of arrangement that allows people to control the flow of goods into New Zealand and deny the rights of other New Zealanders to pass the benefits of cheaper goods on to ordinary people. 
Members need just look at the reduction in prices we have seen in computer software. The price reductions we have seen in that area have been absolutely phenomenal and that is the result of parallel importing brought in by the National Government. Members should just look at the cost reduction we have seen in designer products like perfumes clothing and household goods. They have reduced in price dramatically because of parallel importing—which was opposed for days hours on end by the Labour Party when this was first proposed by the National Party in Government. 
We oppose this Government wanting to make changes in this bill because we do not believe that this Government can be trusted to make changes that will preserve the integrity of parallel importing. We have just seen during the debate on the previous part that even when the advice they received from every Government agency told Government members that their 9-month ban on importing videos and DVDs would not work they still did it. When this Committee was told time and time again in this Committee stage that that ban on parallel importing would not work the Government has not listened. Parallel importing introduced by the previous National Government has been a runaway success. It has lowered the cost of inputs for hundreds if not thousands of businesses around the country.