Mallard Trevor: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:14837] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I thank the member opposite Jacqui Dean for her contribution. It is fair to say that it was a relatively broad contribution to the debate and I thank her for broadening it in that way. The member’s Freudian slip or “McCully-like” slip—mixing up “expeditiously” and “expediently”—really got to the nub of this question. When she said that Labour members are unhappy because we are not in Government for the Rugby World Cup she is absolutely right. I know that it would not be acceptable for Labour to put together a bill in this form. The reasons for that we will get to later on in the debate but it is fair to say that the establishment of the Rugby World Cup Authority goes to the core of the bill. 
At this stage I want to give the Hon Murray McCully some credit. It happens every now and again. The Minister in the chair the Hon Georgina te Heuheu smiles. She is deputising for that Minister and she knows that there are not a lot of things to give him credit for. She knows that better than a lot of people. Minister McCully has been consulting as to the membership of the Rugby World Cup Authority. He has lists of individuals and possibilities which is good. When that matter becomes more formal I will probably be allowed to tell my caucus colleagues about it. It is fair to say there is no suggestion as yet that the Minister is stacking the Rugby World Cup Authority with Tory hacks who are in it only for tickets to the games. It is fair to say that he has in mind some people of some reputation and a broad range of skills including those in the environmental law area. I would be interested to know whether the Hon Nick Smith the Minister for the Environment has been consulted on this. 
I know it may be putting the cart before the horse here but clearly we need to pass this legislation before the formal consultation can occur. I am sure that Mr McCully will be working with Dr Nick Smith in the way that he is working with members of the Opposition— 
Grant Robertson 
: Can he work with Dr Smith? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Apparently he likes working with Dr Nick Smith. It is one of those— 
Grant Robertson 
: I’ve always said he was peculiar. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I will not comment on that. The establishment of the Rugby World Cup Authority is something that goes to the core of the bill. Who was the member who was speaking just before? 
Grant Robertson 
: Jacqui Dean. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Jacqui Dean indicated that the Government Administration Committee had made some detailed decisions on the shape of the authority the functions and the type of people that we had been looking for. I want to make a minor correction: the select committee did not make any decisions in that area at all. It is fair to say that the Minister again had consulted relatively well with the Opposition before the legislation was introduced and at least in that part the type of skills that were necessary had been fairly well sorted out before the bill was introduced. 
My next point—it will probably be the subject of my third and fourth calls when I come back to it—concerns schedule 1 which is brought into play by clause 14. I am catching up with the modern ways of doing things in the Committee stage so I ask whether this is where we discuss schedule 1 as opposed to the miscellaneous provisions at the end. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Correct. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Then I will get back to schedule 1 because it is an important schedule. 
One of the areas where there was quite a lot of change made is in clause 15 on the functions of the administrative secretariat. I think that members are aware that that authority will sit in panels. The issue of the panels is dealt with in clause 12. Each panel will have at least three members including as presiding officer a lawyer of at least 7 years’ standing who may be the chairperson of the authority. That would mean that as we would expect a retired judge could be appointed probably for the important decisions and maybe for the important Auckland panel and we would expect that person to chair the more important hearings. The chairperson of the authority appoints the panels and needs to have the relevant skills and experience to deal with the applications that are coming before it. Some quite big groups of applications will be quite similar. Without going into the detail of events that require liquor licences which are later on there is an expectation that groups of liquor licences will be dealt with as a block; those from a particular area will operate according to a consistent set of rules and police involvement and will have their hearings together and get decisions. Those applications will be taken individually but are more likely to be consistent with this sort of approach. But for that to occur we need to have the panels and we need to have the administrative—is it secretaria? What is the plural of “secretariat”? Is it secretariats secretaria or secretariae? 
Hon Member 
: Secretariats. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is secretariats. We are going to have to have a series of secretariats—[ 
Interruption 
] It is not often that I can say that I miss Simon Upton in the Chamber. There is no doubt that “Hansel” would have been able to sort out that question. The other thing I have no doubt about is that “Gretel” would not have been able to. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member knows that he must refer to somebody by their proper name. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I thought that applied only to current members. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: No no. [ 
Interruption 
] I am on my feet. I am dealing with a matter here. The member knows that he must refer to someone by their correct name. I ask him to do so in the future. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am sorry. For clarification I was referring to my then fellow Waikato colleague. The Rt Hon Simon Upton distinguished himself by reading Homer in the Greek in the House for enjoyment when he was getting bored with debates. He certainly would have known— 
Grant Robertson 
: John Hayes reads Homer Simpson. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No that is not true. Someone reads Homer Simpson to John Hayes. We would have worked out whether we have the plural of “secretariat” correct in the bill if Mr Upton was involved. 
The other area where there is major change and where I think it is fair to say the Minister and those of us who were involved in the bill earlier did not get it right is in respect of deposits to be paid to the administrative secretariat. There is concern that some people will have a bit of a try-on with this; some people will try to slip through applications in the more general area which we will come to in Part 3 of the bill and even more so in Part 4 which relates to Minister McCully. The idea of the deposit arrangement is that the deposit is substantial will cover all of the costs and will be a deterrent to applications that are frivolous or try-ons because people will end up paying not only their own costs but the costs of the other side as part of that arrangement. But under new clause 15A(3) there is an ability to refund the excess amount to the applicant.