Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage) Link to this
I move, That the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill be now read a third time.
Hon Dr Michael CullenHon JUDITH TIZARD Link to this
Ha, ha!
I commend this bill to the House, thank the House for its consideration, and recognise that the bill has been of particular interest and concern both to the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark—who is, of course, the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage—and to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Michael Cullen, who takes an enormous interest in this issue.
New Zealand was the first English-speaking country in the world to introduce a scheme to compensate authors for the use of their works in libraries; Norman Kirk’s Labour Government did that in 1973. We saw an attempt to get rid of this scheme, but it was maintained by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act in 1994. This bill will repeal that provision and establish a public lending right scheme for New Zealand authors. It is a great measure, and I commend all of those who have worked towards it. This Government believes that the work authors do must be recognised and compensated for, and this bill does that.
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) Link to this
The National Party enthusiastically endorses the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill, and we will support its third reading. As I said last night during the second reading debate, it is one of those strange pieces of legislation. If one is a property rights person, one can be very much in favour of the public lending right from a property rights point of view. If one is a socialist or a social democrat and believes that everyone should be on welfare, then likewise it is utterly acceptable. So there is no reason why anyone in this House should oppose this legislation. It serves our excellent New Zealand authors very well indeed, and my personal hope is that we will be able to do more for authors in the years to come.
As the Minister said, it has been a very long journey. A funding scheme was introduced by Norman Kirk in 1973, and it simply existed for some years. The Minister quite rightly accepts responsibility for saving that fund, by means of a particular reference to it in the Act that re-established the Arts Council in the mid-1990s. But by the end of the 1990s it was becoming apparent that the Arts Council was not doing all that flash a job in administering the Authors’ Fund, and that the time had come for reform. So the Arts Board had a report commissioned on the fund, and that worked very well indeed; Associate Professor Geoffrey McLay wrote a very good paper. The Labour Party promised that it would introduce a public lending right and reform the Authors’ Fund. That was promised in its 1999 manifesto but nothing has happened for 9 years, so it is good that in the dying stages of this Parliament this legislation will shortly be passed into law.
As many members have said, we have a thriving literary community in New Zealand. Most of the people in this community are members of the Society of Authors. They really do contribute to the richness of our culture, and this is one very, very small way of recognising that contribution.
I am very happy to support the bill. It was rushed, admittedly, and we did not get time on the Government Administration Committee to write a report, which was, perhaps, a little disappointing, but we were concentrating on the resale royalties legislation. I think we have tidied up the bill as best we can. I know that Mr Jones is not all that happy with the existing scope of the regulation-making power, but we will have to see how it goes. Let us see what the advisory group does when it is established, and let us see what sorts of regulations emerge. I have a feeling they will be acceptable.
The real debate will come when a Minister of Finance is spoken to about increasing the book rate, and I hope all Ministers of Finance will be generous in that regard, because authors deserve it. The frequency with which the book rate is going to be negotiated will be a major question. I do not think to do so annually will make a lot of sense. I think in Norway and some other Scandinavian countries it is done on a quinquennial basis, so maybe we could do something like that.
So there we have it. I am pleased that this is the last bill to go through the House before Parliament dies, and I am hopeful that what we have here will serve the interests of authors for the next little period.
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) Link to this
I will take just a very short call in the third reading of the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill, to put on record my pleasure that this bill is being concluded with the support of the parties in the House. I also thank the members of the Government Administration Committee. I have worked on that committee for 2 years, and it is a very interesting committee. Quite a variety of things come across our table, and this was one of the bills we considered, even though we did so in a very short time frame, as the previous speaker, Chris Finlayson, said. I enjoyed working with Christopher Finlayson on this bill, and I enjoyed seeing the love-fest between Sandra Goudie and Mr Finlayson, which is continuing to this very day.
Oh yes, the member did not hear about that. But this is a very, very important bill.
It was a great pleasure to hear from some of our top authors and from the other people we asked to make submissions to us. That process impressed upon me the real importance of the literary scene in New Zealand—how much it contributes to our society, and how generous authors are in sharing that through libraries. I also thank the officials and the department for their work.
I finish by saying that I have enjoyed working with the other members of the Government Administration Committee on these types of bills. I am pleased that we are getting this bill through on the last day of Parliament, in such a good cause. Thank you.
DAIL JONES (NZ First) Link to this
Any civilisation is remembered by its contributions, and the people who make the greatest contribution to a civilisation are its artists and writers. The Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill recognises the work undertaken by New Zealand authors towards creating our own New Zealand civilisation.
The bill, in its definition of who a New Zealand author is, does not limit the definition to a New Zealander in terms of the tax definition provided in the legislation. In terms of the bill’s definition, anyone is included who is resident in New Zealand and who is writing in New Zealand. I think that not enough has been made of the contribution made to authorship in New Zealand by the many new immigrants who have come into this country from various parts of the world. They are making a contribution, and will be making a contribution, to writing in New Zealand. In a way, this bill gives recognition to that state of affairs.
New Zealand authorship goes back a long time. Much mention has been made of the works of Katherine Mansfield and the work of Peter Buck, who was the iconic writer for New Zealand anthropology. His work The Coming of the Maori is something that is read in New Zealand universities even today, as part of anthropology studies. Of course, both those writers are deceased, and neither of them will receive any benefit from this legislation. This bill is meant for those people who are currently writing in New Zealand and whose books are available in New Zealand libraries. As mentioned earlier, the legislation excludes books that are written for the purpose of school studies.
My only criticism of the legislation is that when it was first introduced it had a regulation power that was far too wide, and it is only because of the well-intentioned purpose of this legislation that one can turn a blind eye to the usual overarching regulation provisions that were in the legislation in the first place. The select committee has done some work on improving the situation. Of course, this bill went to the select committee and came back without amendments, in the committee’s rush, but then the Minister put amendments to the Committee of the whole House and those amendments were accepted. The bill is in a much better state than it was when it came back from the select committee, and, as I have mentioned already, let us hope authors give us some credit for rushing through the House a bill that benefits authors in New Zealand.
The question of interpretation was raised by Chris Finlayson. I can assure him that I was not a student of Geoffrey Palmer. In fact, he came into this House after I came into it, and I am sure he learnt a thing or two on the Statutes Revision Committee, as it was, when he was a member of that committee and I was its chairman, many years ago, which might have helped him in his subsequent literary and literate contributions to New Zealand.
The bill is supported by New Zealand First. As the New Zealand First spokesman on culture, I have great pleasure in taking part in the debate on this legislation—as we all take pleasure in New Zealand First in this legislation. It is the last piece of legislation before we move into the adjournment debate—which I am sure we are all looking forward to with great interest—and the House rises. On that note, I indicate that New Zealand First supports the bill.
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) Link to this
It is my very great pleasure to follow my most learned colleagues in speaking to the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill, and National is very proud to be able to support New Zealand authors by supporting the bill. I note that the previous speaker, Dail Jones, said the bill was in a much better state than it was in previously. In actual fact, the bill is in exactly the same state that it was in when it went to the Government Administration Committee; it is Supplementary Order Paper 246 that makes it slightly different. In response to some of the previous comments made, I say that, yes, I am enjoying the love affair that is continuing to grow with my select committee colleagues. I have to say that I will indeed miss the very fine contributions of Dover Samuels, who always had a cheery smile and a ready quip, which was gratefully accepted.
We love our books and we love our libraries. They are wonderful institutions in New Zealand, and I am delighted that our authors are being recognised and will receive payments according to the criteria set down by the advisory group, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria for a payment. I would just like to mention one book, The Great Brain Robbery—and that is no reflection on this Parliament. It is a wonderful book by Tom Scott and Trevor Grice, and it raises an issue in respect of the public lending rights of New Zealand authors. The book has two authors, so who will the payment be made to? Of course, it will be incumbent upon the authors to make a decision about who receives the payment and how they divvy it up according to the degree or percentage of contribution. I certainly extol The Great Brain Robbery for any parent wanting to know about teenagers and drugs. It is a wonderful book, and it is one of those resources that is readily accessible in our libraries. That is the wonderful thing about our libraries: not everybody can afford to buy a book, but people can go along to the library and get the information they seek.
The Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill is one way that we can recognise and reward the significant contributions that authors make to support the people of New Zealand in their greater understanding of a wide range of issues. Drugs are one of those issues, and a very important one, given the devastating effects they have on our children and our families in New Zealand. National is very happy to support the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Bill, and we look forward to working with that legislation in the future.