Collins Judith: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Collins Judith: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8480] 
JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: 
 The Minister of Internal Affairs said that people do not like casinos. He referred to the huge kerfuffle over the Hamilton casino. At that stage I was not on the Casino Control Authority but my former colleagues were. There was a tremendous amount of talk which was being rarked up by the Alliance the rump of the Labour Party. People were saying that Hamilton would become the Sodom and Gomorrah of the South Pacific. I was born in Hamilton. When I was growing up in the Waikato Hamilton to me was the big town. I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that Hamilton could ever be the Sodom and Gomorrah of the South Pacific. It is a great town and it is going places despite its MPs but it will never be the Sodom and Gomorrah of the South Pacific because it is too much country. 
I went to three or four meetings in Queenstown of the problem-gambling committee there which was set up after the Casino Control Authority said it was listening to the concerns of the people of Queenstown and would make sure there was such a committee. The committee decided that it would stop meeting. The problem-gambling people themselves decided that—the community liaison group. They did it because there was no problem gambling. The reason is that the closest thing to a gambling problem in Queenstown is that there is not enough gambling in its casinos. That is the problem in Queenstown. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if people do not go along in sufficient numbers the casinos will not be very successful. What has happened in Queenstown? During the hearings which were being rarked up by a former member of this House Phillida Bunkle people were told that Queenstown would be the Sodom and Gomorrah of the South Island. And was it? No it was not. I think that now people would look far more kindly on casinos. 
The people who do not want more casinos are the current casino operators. They do not want any competition and I understand that; if I were in their business I would absolutely agree with them and I would be arguing for that too. But that is not our role. Our role is to represent the people of New Zealand. 
I would like to talk a little bit about the pokie machine operators. The charitable trusts that distribute the money have really cleaned up their act. They have very much taken responsibility for their industry and their sector and are doing a good job. I congratulate them and I congratulate the Department of Internal Affairs on pulling finger for once and doing something to help the industry get its act in order. I used to be a great complainer about the industry before things changed and it got rid of the problem people. It is important to say that because we hear all the time about problem gambling but for most people gambling is not a problem. Most people who go to casinos do not have a problem. 
What will be a real problem for casinos and for some of the community groups operating pokie machines is the smoke-free legislation. That will be a problem for the casinos and a problem for the little operations that run pokie machines. It is great that we will not be accepting the Greens suggestion to take all the proceeds of the pokie funds and put them into three different accounts none of which will be about my local community. I think that is great. 
I will say for the Green members that they are at least consistent. They told us what they were going to do and I say good on them for doing that. They did not hide their light under a bushel; they told us back in January what they would do so we could tell the rest of New Zealand. Good on them for doing that! It did mean that poor old Labour had to go off to United Future and say: “The Greens won’t be in bed with us; will you?”. We are hearing tonight about the great relationship among United Future the Greens and Labour. There were three in the bed and one said “Roll over!” and one did. Now the poor old Greens have rolled out and United Future is in bed with Labour. Its members will vote for some of the stuff in this bill that they tell me they do not really believe in and I believe them. But they are cuddled up to Labour their feet are warm and that is what it is all about.