A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn:
- Patents (Advancement Patents) Amendment Bill (Parmjeet Parmar)
- Companies (Clarification of Dividend Rules in Companies) Amendment Bill (Todd Muller)
- KiwiSaver (Foster Parents Opting in for Children in their Care) Amendment Bill (Hamish Walker)
Parmar's Bill introduces an entire system of "advancement patents" covering things which are not inventions - effectively creating a whole new area of intellectual property for companies to monopolise and rent-seek over. As someone who thinks that intellectual property law already protects too much, for too long, I'd prefer that this didn't pass.
There were only 61 bills in the ballot today, compared to the close to 70 in previous ballots. I'm not sure which party is slacking, but clearly someone is.
