Tisch Lindsay: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill Racing Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Tisch Lindsay: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill Racing Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:634;Page:6103] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 As the Minister has just said there is support from parties for this legislation and National has been a supporter right along for the legislation and for splitting it into two bills. I want to re-emphasise some points we believe are important: that is that the Reserve Bank Act amendments in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill implement the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Joint Trans-Tasman Council on Banking Supervision. The bill would oblige the bank where reasonably practicable to cooperate with Australian authorities by supporting them and by avoiding actions likely to have a detrimental effect on the stability of the financial system in Australia. The plan is also to have matching legislative changes in Australia in cooperation with the Reserve Bank. 
Closer integration of banking supervision with Australia is appropriate given the degree of integration that already exists between New Zealand’s and Australia’s banking systems. Most banks here are owned by Australian parents and given the desire to move towards a single economic market the legislation strengthens the arrangements for coordinating with Australia in the event of a general crisis or a specific bank failure involving a cross-border bank. It will be an improvement on what we have at the moment and it will be better than the alternative the Government was looking at which was having an Australian banking regulator the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority being the sole regulator of Australian banks operating in New Zealand. 
The second bill the Racing Amendment Bill amends the Racing Act. Currently the Racing Act requires dividends on winning bets to be rounded down to the nearest 5c. However the 5c coin will be phased out of circulation by 1 November this year and that creates a problem. When I spoke in the Committee stage I gave examples of what that actually means in real terms to the punters and what the Racing Board will now be able to do. The amendments to the Act will allow the Racing Board to decide as part of the betting rules how dividends will be rounded. These betting rules are currently subject to scrutiny by the Regulations Review Committee and the bill does not change this procedure. 
The amendments to the Racing Act are obvious and necessary. One point to make though may be that the Act currently stipulates that dividends are to be rounded down not up or down. Supermarkets for example round up or round down to whatever the closest denomination is. In this case dividends are to be rounded down. If dividends are now to be payable only in multiples of 10c we hope for the punters’ sake that the Racing Board will not continue the practice of only rounding down. However rounding down is a possible way to go. I gave examples in the Committee yesterday of punters not being disadvantaged by this approach. 
It is important that we have commonality with Australia. We need flexibility in the marketplace to meet the market especially in racing where it is very easy to bet on horses overseas—not just in Australia but elsewhere. That commonality with Australia will bring the two countries into line and give us the flexibility we require. So National is very happy to support the two bills into which the original Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill is now split.