Copyright (Parallel Importing of Films) Amendment Bill

I move, That the Copyright (Parallel Importing of Films) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Commerce Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 16 August, and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions, during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House, and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House. I acknowledge and am thankful for the support and cooperation of parties across the House in facilitating the introduction of this bill, and I look forward to their continued support, and I offer my cooperation as it progresses through its various stages.

The Copyright (Parallel Importing of Films) Amendment Bill imposes a temporary ban on the parallel importation of films for commercial purposes for a period of 5 months from the date of the film’s first release to the public. A ban on parallel importing is necessary to enable cinemas to exclusively screen films for a limited period, before copies of films on formats such as DVD and Blu-ray are brought to the New Zealand market. Although many films are released in New Zealand cinemas at the same time as international releases, many films are delayed for several weeks or months due to factors such as seasonality, screen availability, profitability assessments, and competition with other films. Without a ban in place, parallel-imported copies of films could potentially be sold in competition with screenings in cinemas. This could potentially affect the viability of cinemas.

The bill reinstates the existing ban for a reduced period. The current 9-month ban, which is due to expire on 31 October this year, is now outdated, as the gaps between international and New Zealand film releases have reduced considerably since the ban was first introduced. Although the ban is still necessary, the ban needs to be shortened to reflect developments in film distribution and technology. A 5-month ban will continue to protect the cinemas for a limited period while enabling retailers to parallel import copies of films earlier than is currently the case. The ban will also have flow-on effects to New Zealand consumers. The ban will continue to give authorised distributors confidence to bring a wide variety of film into New Zealand.

The film industry is in the middle of a large-scale makeover, as cinemas across the country convert to digital technology. The conversion is well under way and is expected to be completed within the next 2 to 3 years. The ban will remain in force for 3 years to support the film industry through the conversion to digital technology. I commend this bill to the House.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the Copyright (Parallel Importing of Films) Amendment Bill. I appreciate the engagement of the Minister of Broadcasting in recent weeks over this particular issue. It is fair to say that, as the Minister has already pointed out, Labour supports this bill, and I will run through, in the brief time that I have left available before the dinner break, a bit of background about this bill—

💬 Hon Trevor Mallard: 5 minutes after it.

—and for the period afterwards, of course.

I did just want to say that although Labour supports this bill, we have proactively engaged with the Minister to get to this point. We had some initial concerns that this might not have been the outcome and we were seeking this particular outcome for now. This process, I think it is fair to say, would have been smoother, Minister, if perhaps we were not debating this one in urgency. I know that that may not have been what you were necessarily seeking when you took it to your esteemed colleague the Leader of the House, but given that we now have this in an urgency motion, that will bring with it some complications, just in terms of our continuing to make sure that we debate it in full, as we are entitled to do with this process. But that does not lessen the degree to which we support the notion of what we are doing within this bill. A bit more time with the bill would have also been helpful and appreciated. Although, as I have said, we support the content, we have not seen the content in writing till just now. I am literally just opening this bill as we speak, but I take the Minister on his word that it is, as discussed, an extension of the Copyright Act 1994 to allow a temporary ban on parallel importing.

Just to go back to the beginning, in 2003, as I understand it, Labour introduced a 5-year temporary ban that prohibited the commercial import of a film for a period of 9 months from the film first being made available to the public. There is a very explicit reason for this and it is very much based around the motion picture industry—in particular, our small cinemas that many of us may have frequented over the years. I particularly want to highlight the ones in some of our smaller towns and provincial areas that really do rely on the ability to at least get a first foot in the door when it comes to a release. The staging of releases is pretty important to remember: something that is released in the United States, for instance, that is timed around a school holiday period, does not naturally coincide with that period within New Zealand. So having that little buffer period for that industry, as it claims, is the difference between 165 jobs existing or not. Let us be really clear on that. That is work that PricewaterhouseCoopers has done on behalf of the industry to demonstrate that a loss of that window would have that effect.

Let us be clear, though: the industry does have to move with the times. Things are changing, and rapidly. So that is why, as I understand, this bill will put an expiry date of 2016. It also reduces the window from a period of 9 months, which is what we currently have, down to 5 months. That is a compromise that we feel very comfortable with. This is a message, I guess, to the industry that this is unlikely to be a tenable, long-term way of maintaining its ability to stay in front of the game in a digital age. This is, as it were, extra time for the industry to try to develop where it goes next, in the same way that the music industry is doing—and has started doing a very good job of it, I must add. So too does this industry have to start looking at that, and much more rapidly, as well. This bill will allow it the time to do that. It will allow those jobs to be retained while the industry works on how it tries to ensure that it remains viable in the future.

So that is the reason that Labour will be supporting this bill. We are pleased that the Minister has listened to the feedback of those who have an interest in it, and we look forward to debating—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break.

Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Debate interrupted.