The only specific reference to the copyright legislation was in a speech of a little over five minutes' length by Green MP Gareth Hughes, who excused himself and departed as soon as he had finished.

Noting that the scale of fines for a file-sharing offence has still not been established, Hughes suggested a "zero-dollar fine" be levied "if it's a [work] you could access [legally] in America but you can't here, simply because you're in New Zealand."

Hughes repeated his suggestion during the third-reading debate that there should be a broader and deeper examination of the whole concept of copyright in the internet era. Instead of "ramming through" legislation under urgency, he said, "maybe we should stop, have a cup of tea and ask ourselves what copyright is."

The legislation, he said, had started from the premise that the current view of copyright is good and enforcement needs to be strengthened. This is not necessarily the best way of fostering creativity among Kiwi musicians and other creative workers, he said.

Hughes remarked on the number of people commenting through social media in real time on the final stages of debate last month and tuning their televisions to the Parliament channel to watch until midnight. "It was the first time in my 14 months in Parliament I got the feeling that people were actually bothering to get involved in a debate," he told the 50 or 60 attendees at the protest meeting.