Lotu-Iiga SamHon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie): It is an honour to speak on this bill and can I acknowledge the member Mr Mitchell for bringing the bill because I know where his heart is on this. I know that he cares about New Zealand sport. He cares about the New Zealand public and how they view sport the relationship between New Zealanders and sport and how important it is to the social fabric of our nation. However I think he gets this bill extremely wrong. He gets it wrong in terms of what it is trying to achieve and in fact the consequences of this bill could be quite damaging to many of the sports that he talks about. Although his intentions are good the bill is misplaced.I think one member has already said it correctly: we cannot go back to the days of sport being littered with ads with delayed coverage because it was free to air. The commercial reality of it is that sport although we enjoy it and although it is part of our community and our lifestyle in New Zealand is a business. New Zealand rugby is a $133 million business—Hon Trevor Mallard: In a bad year.Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: —and expanding—and New Zealand rugby is a brand that all New Zealanders are proud of and we know from correspondence from three of our major sports—New Zealand rugby New Zealand cricket and New Zealand netball—that rugby and cricket form 40 percent of that revenue. It is such a critical part of their operations that what Mr Mitchell is saying with this bill is that he will threaten the livelihoods of top sportspeople. This bill will threaten the livelihoods of community sports by taking that revenue away. He shakes his head but he has not come up with any answers as to how he will cover the costs of providing for sport in this country.He also does not explain how the costs of producing these broadcasts will be covered. Some say that it costs $180000 for example to cover a test match—all the production equipment all the staff that are required—and yet how does that get funded? He also talked about All Blacks whom we need to retain within this country—top All Blacks like Ben Smith Aaron Smith and Kieran Read. Yet this bill will threaten their livelihoods and yes they will go overseas. They are more likely to go overseas with this bill in place than they would be under the current status.Clayton Mitchell: You need to research it. You need to do some research.Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: He has asked about research and yet he refers to markets overseas and the Australian market. We all know the Australian market is very different from the New Zealand market in terms of free-to-air broadcasting and the competitiveness of that market and how that competitiveness will not lead to revenues going to our unions or to our sports bodies through this bill. I ask him how he would pay for this. He says the debate has been around that the taxpayer also funds a lot of these sports. Well if you look at the schedule actually the taxpayer does not fund too many of the sports that are in the schedule. The funding for those particular sports is actually quite low. So I put it to him that the research has not been done here.I also do not think he recognises the changing nature of the digital platform on which sports are being covered around the world.Hon Simon Bridges: A bit complicated.Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: It is a little complicated. We are more and more seeing sports being streamed on the internet where people are able to pay to watch individual sports events and also pay to see their favourite sports team whether it be the All Blacks or New Zealand cricket or New Zealand netball online. Those are the things that are changing within the sports market within the broadcasting market that I think this bill ignores.I just want to say again in summary that although I agree with the intentions of this bill I think this bill is flawed. I think this is going back to an age where—we are just not going there in terms of the Government. In terms of the Opposition parties I have heard members opposite criticise this bill. We are moving forward with sport in this country. It is a big business. It is community driven. This bill is a step to the past; it is not looking to the future.