McKelvie IanRACING INDUSTRY BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Preliminary provisionsIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank you Mr Chair. Well I was going to ask the Minister in the chair a number of questions but I see we've got a real gambler sitting there now so I won't bother.I just wanted to make a couple of points in the committee stage and particularly related to clauses 19 to 27. Those clauses relate to the ownership of racecourses in New Zealand. The original bill came into the House with some pretty I guess challenging commentary in those clauses which effectively meant that the industry could all but confiscate property and transfer it around the country as they wished. Now the comment I want to make is that I think we've got those clauses to a point now where those communities can protect those assets in those communities if they wish to do so. I think that's a critical point because the original bill effectively meant that a track in Gore for example could be sold and the asset transferred to a track in Auckland. That certainly wasn't a satisfactory arrangement because communities of interest have built up over hundreds of years almost in some cases because some of our racing clubs are 160-odd years old and they'd built up to the point that those communities felt that they were theirs even though they are effectively the property of the racing club often. So the intention of the changes to those clauses was to ensure that those assets could be retained in those communities for community use if that community had a desire to do so. The other point about that was that we also wanted to retain attention in the bill which enabled the industry to rationalise itself in a manner that allowed it to progress and progress well. I was going to ask the Minister in the chair a question about those tracks. I probably don't need to do that. So I'll get on to the second point I wanted to make and that was about—I don't want to embarrass the Minister. Hon Shane Jones: Don't tempt me.IAN McKELVIE: I'm sure he'd be able to answer it but I'm not going to ask him. The second point I wanted to make very quickly was the appointment of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) board and there's been a delay put in place to extend the RITA board's term. I would have asked the Minister this as well and I will ask him but he might not want to answer. I'd be very interested to know if this bill gets through the House how long it will take to reappoint or to appoint a new board to run the TAB because I think that's absolutely a critical appointment in this process and I think it needs to be dealt with urgently because I think there's an urgency to get people who understand the gaming industry on that board and get them there as quickly as we can. That's no criticism of the current RITA board; it's just I think a specific job and I think it urgently needs some attention. So those were two points I wanted to make just related to the track because I want to be quite clear of our intentions around those tracks and how the Transport and Infrastructure Committee intended that they move forward. I think Parliament has probably accepted that and that's the manner in which they should move forward. The other point was the reappointment of the RITA board. Thank you Mr Chair.