Curran ClareHon CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Well I must say I don't think I've ever said this in the House before but I actually agree with quite a bit of what David Bennett said. I thought it was actually mostly quite a reasonable speech. But I have to say that the National Party's speeches in the House on this bill this afternoon have been all over the place because while David Bennett said it needs to happen it has to happen and has a few beefs with various parts of the bill Gerry Brownlee says the racing sector is boring and he asks what's wrong with it. Nikki Kaye barely talked about the Racing Reform Bill; instead she talked about the adverse effect on sporting codes.So I haven't been a racing spokesperson in my time in Parliament but I will tell you this: I've got two quite significant and historical race courses in my electorate. Forbury Park Raceway formed in 1870 started off originally as a galloping and saddle-trotting raceway. Then there was a split from it that went off to a place just out of Mosgiel at a place called Wingatūī which is quite a famous raceway that is also in my electorate. Forbury then became known for its trotting and particularly its night trotting in the 1960s. Certainly I would say that both those race courses are past their prime and that certainly feeds in to what the Minister has said in a speech this afternoon on this—that there is a serious issue in the New Zealand racing industry that it is in a state of decline and that urgent action is needed.One of the other things that Nikki Kaye actually said in her speech earlier was that this was a terribly truncated process—and yet there was previous legislation apparently sitting around by the last Government. So since then there's been an extraordinary process to get to the point where this report—the review of the New Zealand racing industry the Messara report—was produced. There were 1700 submissions. That's not a terribly truncated process in my book and it shouldn't be in anyone's book for those who are listening to this. That was carried out last year. There were 1700 submissions received and then the Government established an advisory committee to guide the implementation of the recommendations—I think there were 17 recommendations made by the Messara report—and this is where this legislation has come from.The Deputy Prime Minister has made absolutely clear that this is step one and that there's a further step to come. This piece of legislation establishes a transitional body which will see that process through as well as those other financial gathering measures which interestingly were actually based more or less on the previous Government's work. So that doesn't sound like a terribly truncated process to me. It sounds like a responsible process that's actually about dealing with the big-picture issues in the industry which is worth a lot to New Zealand and which does have some significant issues that do need to be addressed. So it's not piecemeal. This is a stepped process.I think it's responsible. I think that the National Party needs to work out actually what its real position is on this. I think David Bennett obviously seems to have more of an idea than the rest of you—not you Madam Assistant Speaker. I think it's very responsible. I commend the bill to the House.