Peachey Allan: Major Events Management Bill — First Reading 
Peachey Allan: Major Events Management Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7507] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I am very pleased to be able to rise and speak in support of the Major Events Management Bill. New Zealand is a great sporting nation and New Zealanders love their sport. It means an enormous amount to us that in the coming years a number of world championships will be held here and it is very important that we hold them very very well. Right at the forefront of our minds of course is the Rugby World Cup. I guess one of the reasons it is right at the forefront of our minds is the dithering of the Minister for Sport and Recreation. But in addition to that the world rowing championships are coming and of course the Cricket World Cup. 
What is being proposed in this bill is no different from what is happening in other jurisdictions. The Black Caps will shortly be off to the West Indies with a magnificent series victory against Australia behind them. They will be competing in a sports event where the same sorts of rules will apply just as they applied at the Olympic Games in Sydney and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. What New Zealand is doing is no different from what is happening everywhere else. But it is great to see the way that we are positioning ourselves now as a country that is capable of hosting major world events and capable of doing it in such a way that people from other countries will come down here and support them. The Government’s role is to ensure that the environment is right so that those people who put their time their effort their expertise and their money into making an event successful actually have a fair opportunity to make sure that that happens. 
This is not unduly restrictive legislation; there were significant protections in the Act. The threshold at which the legislation will cut in is very high. Obviously I have some reservations that the present Minister for Sport and Recreation will have powers in a matter such as this but I do take a lot of confidence in the knowledge that by the time the Rugby World Cup reaches New Zealand a National Government will be in office and it will be a National Minister who will have this responsibility. 
It is right that those who make a significant financial contribution to enable these events to be held have the opportunity to get a fair return. I know from my experience of years spent being involved as a volunteer at national and provincial level in sporting organisations just how difficult it is to put things together to get the funding to run the activity and to give those who support us a fair opportunity to get the publicity the business and the rewards they are entitled to as a result of their investment. There are those who will tell us that a totally free market should operate and that it is fair somebody should take advantage of a commercial opportunity to grab the moment and make a dollar. But we need to understand that if we are going to host these major events and make a success of them the environment must be such that those who support an event often over a large number of years in an ongoing commitment have a fair opportunity to get a return. That is what this bill will provide. 
One of the particularly pleasing features of the bill from my point of view is the restriction it puts on what is described as the scalping of tickets. When I think back to my years as a school principal I know that one of the things that really used to frustrate me was that the schoolteachers who worked for me Saturday after Saturday evening after evening and year after year were never able to get tickets to the big events in the sports to which they gave so much of their time. I very well remember on one occasion being in the hospitality box at Eden Park and looking around and wondering where the schoolteachers were. Where were the people who week after week year after year were providing the framework for sport for our young people? They were not in the hospitality boxes. Often they were not even in the ground. At least with some protection against scalping those ordinary New Zealanders who year after year make a voluntary commitment to their sport who do not work for some big corporate or some big organisation and who do not have the ability to somehow fiddle tickets will get a bit of an opportunity to have a fair go. 
Let us never ever forget that the base for any successful activity lies in its roots. It lies in those ordinary New Zealand volunteers who as I have said day after day week after week year after year front up because of their love for their activity and their commitment to young people and to making sure these things happen. It is very important that when the Rugby World Cup reaches New Zealand in 2011 for example and when the Cricket World Cup is here a few years later those people have a fair opportunity to participate and to be involved. 
This is thoughtful legislation. It is carefully thought out. It is to meet a specific purpose. It is not unduly restrictive but it is fair. It is fair to those people who are prepared to put their money where their mouths are who are prepared to make their commitment and who are prepared to make something happen—and it is very important. I know from my own experience that it is very important that when people make a commitment to an activity particularly a big commitment they have to make that commitment some years out. They need a degree of certainty around what they can expect what sort of return they will get and what sort of environment they will be in. They need to have the incentive to keep that commitment ongoing. No business interest in its right mind will be in a position to put up large sums of money to promote activities if it cannot see that the environment will give it a fair opportunity to promote its product to promote its name and to make the community aware of the support the business is giving. 
These days there are partnerships between volunteers participants business interests administrators ground authorities local authorities and Governments. Each bit of the partnership has to be made to work. The partnership will not work if some of its elements feel they are not going to have an opportunity to have a fair go. For those reasons I am very pleased to be able to support this bill. 
Bill read a first time.