Mapp Wayne: Auckland Domain (Auckland Tennis) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
Mapp Wayne: Auckland Domain (Auckland Tennis) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16699] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 The Auckland Domain (Auckland Tennis) Amendment Bill goes beyond the issues that are directly in front of it. It speaks of Auckland’s role as a leading Pacific Rim city. Auckland is the only city in New Zealand that can have a genuinely global presence. There are 1.4 million people living there and it is the principal entry point into this country for virtually all tourists. If Auckland does not succeed at that level of being a leading Pacific Rim city then frankly our nation will not succeed either. The issue is quite stark when we look at it in that light. Are we prepared to take the steps as a Parliament and as a nation that will enable us to stay in the game if you like—to keep international competitions and to give New Zealand the profile and standing that we as a nation expect of ourselves? Think of the alternative. The alternative is that Auckland just slips off the radar of international concern. When people talk about places to visit interesting things to see they simply will not mention Auckland or for that matter New Zealand. The challenge is becoming sharper as the years go by. 
As the Minister has correctly said there are a relatively small number of genuinely global sports. Obviously soccer is one along with tennis golf rugby and motor racing. Auckland is fortunate to be able to host two leading contests: the ASB Classic Women’s International which is a World Tennis Association event and the Heineken Open Men’s International which is an Association of Tennis Professionals event. We got those events decades ago when New Zealand had a substantially higher profile internationally than it has today. 
Twenty or 30 years ago New Zealand had more than 2 percent of global trade. Today it is 0.3 percent. That is because a whole group of other nations have been growing and growing rapidly particularly in our region. Only about 30 cities hold these Association of Tennis Professionals contests. One can imagine how keenly they are contested for. If we started with a clean sheet of paper would we really be in the running to get these contests? I suggest it would be quite a challenge to do so and that is why it is so important while we have these contests to do everything we can as a city as a nation and as a Parliament to retain that competitive edge. The truth is there are dozens of cities—particularly in Asia and in the Middle East—that would spend literally millions of dollars of public money if they felt they could gain these contests. There is also considerable attraction in these contests because of course they precede by literally days or a matter of a couple of weeks the Australian Open. So it is a very good primer for tennis players going to those contests to train up and get themselves ready. Contests in other parts of the world would not have quite such an attractive sense. 
We need to capitalise on the advantages that we have by simply having the contests because of our proximity to the Australian Open. But that means we have to do things differently. That in particular means renewing the facilities in the Auckland Domain. They were fine facilities 20 years ago but when one looks at the pictures on the television of the sorts of venues where the other 30 contests are held one sees that it is absolutely obvious that we have to improve the facilities. Global competitions require global facilities. One has only to ask the people involved in the Rugby World Cup 2011 about that particular challenge. I might add to the Government in probably its last few months that it needs to get its skates on to help Auckland and Eden Park get that stadium moving because it is only in fact— 
Dail Jones 
: What about North Harbour? 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: I think that time has gone. It is now Eden Park. The Rugby World Cup is only 3 years away and New Zealand is not China. We cannot build stadiums in 6 months. 
National is very enthusiastic to support this legislation. Yes we have some questions around issues with the domain and so forth but we are well satisfied with the briefings from Auckland Tennis on those issues. It seems to us and indeed as I understand it every party in the House that it is imperative that we act to retain New Zealand’s competitive advantage and to get a contemporary quality facility which will in fact be largely funded from outside New Zealand. I guess that tells one a bit of a story does it not? New Zealand with 4 million people and Auckland City with 1.4 million people now have to basically look outside for this kind of capital to build these kinds of facilities. So as legislators we are prepared to assist and that means extending the lease period from 21 years to 50 years. If we would spend tens of millions of dollars on a new facility which there has to be some level of commercial return on then clearly we have to have a proper and more appropriate lease than 21 years. 
The Auckland Domain is actually something of a relic when one thinks about it. Auckland Tennis has been on that site for nearly 100 years. The prospect of it going from that site is simply not thinkable and no one would really suggest that it is yet we have locked ourselves into 21-year leases which presumably just get rolled over every 21 years or so. It would be far better to have a 50-year lease which would enable the proper level of capital commitment with outside partners—based in Melbourne in fact—to build the quality of facilities that world tennis will demand. This is not something on which we are in a strong negotiating position as a nation. We have to be competitive and as legislators and as members representing metropolitan Auckland if we do not do these things for our city we will have failed. I know there are members in the House today who might say “Well it looks like you’re doing something for Auckland.” But I can say to those members that the whole country benefits. Everyone in this nation benefits when we hold international competitions because of the flow-on effects. We are all diminished if we lose these competitions. 
I am pleased to see today that not only are we doing the second reading but we are going to be doing the third reading to be able to get momentum and movement during the life of this Parliament. It is I think a good thing that the parties have come together to enable that to happen because that can only happen with the consensus across the House on the important things to do. From time to time it behoves this Parliament across the political boundaries and across the party divides to actually recognise the wider New Zealand interest and lift ourselves in order to be able to do the best for our country. This is one of those occasions. 
This issue goes beyond tennis. It really goes to the point of whether we are really prepared to stand up and do the things that will lift our nation build progress and keep us a leading nation within the Pacific Rim. If we fail in that—and there is a risk of that if we do not do the right things—then we will have doomed future generations of New Zealanders to poverty and obscurity and all of us wish a great deal better for our nation and for our future generations than that. Passing this bill is its own little symbol of pulling together as a nation and indeed making sure that we are seen as a globally competitive nation able to hold globally competitive events.