Tisch Lindsay: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:6025] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 This is important legislation and I can assure the previous speaker Shane Jones that my Shetland pony is running quite well. In fact it ran third last week. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: What’s its name? 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: It is called Mum’s a Honey. How is that for a name? The Minister should write that down. When it races this week it will run better than third; it will run first. 
But I have a bet for this Committee and it is a trifecta. Do members opposite want inside information? In terms of this trifecta I bet that at the next election Labour will be out. That is a sure bet. Members should put their money on the fact that Labour will be gone. That is a sure bet and I know they will make money out of it. 
Racing is important in the Waikato. If we look at the Mercedes awards just recently— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: What’s this got to do with 10c? 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: This has a lot to do with 10c. Others have talked about it but if we look at the New Zealand Thoroughbred 
Racehorse Owners Federation magazine  
Racehorse Owner 
—and this is where the 10c is so important—we will see that it was a proud night for those from the Waikato particularly the Piako electorate which includes Cambridge and Matamata. Members should listen to this. The Mercedes Owner of the Year award went to Ann Brown from Cambridge. The leading jockey was Mark Walker from Matamata. The best contribution to racing went to Waikato Stud owned and operated by Garry and Mary Chittick and Mark and Lisa Chittick. Of course last year Garry Chittick of Waikato Stud won a Mercedes Breeder of the Year award. So there is a lot of support there and I am proud to be able to stand up and support racing and what it means not only to this region but to the country as a whole. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: When you had a chance you didn’t do a thing. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: The member says we did not do a thing. It was National’s policy that New Zealand First ran with at the election. It was plain to us when we sat on platform after platform before the election that the Minister for Racing at the time had absolutely no interest in racing whatsoever. At Te Rapa Damien O’Connor had absolutely no interest in racing. It was only because we put pressure on that we are able to show the importance of racing and what it brings in the way of jobs—and to the brand as John Key said—and what it means to New Zealand as a whole. 
What does this bill actually do? If we are to be competitive then we need to have some commonality with Australia. It is very very easy to bet on Australian horses. If we are not going to be competitive and have the flexibility that is so important in racing then we will lose our market offshore. It is very easy to bet offshore and this bill will bring us some commonality in terms of what will happen with the 5c situation we currently have and our move to rounding off to 10c. The proposed amendments to the Racing Act will allow the Racing Board to round down dividends within the rules. Of course from 1 November we are doing away with 5c coins. They will no longer be available. 
But what does it actually mean in terms of the payouts and who will win and who will lose? The bet type will change its current deduction of 15.5 percent down to 14.5 percent. Deductions on a place type will go from 15.5 percent down to 14.25 percent. Overall if we look at the turnover in 2005-06 we will see that it was $1.364 billion. The dividends paid to the punters the customers under the current system amount to $1.106 billion. Under the proposed rounding-down scheme they will amount to $1.1105 billion. There is a $4.4 million advantage to the punters. 
So National does support this legislation because the customer the punter will not miss out. There were some thoughts earlier on that those people may be disadvantaged by this move but that will not be the case. We have to have a rate determined by the Racing Board. We need commonality with Australia. That is what is so important. That is the flexibility to meet the market. National has much pleasure in supporting not only the whole of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill but particularly from where I am speaking Part 2. 
Part 2 agreed to.