O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look I really would like to congratulate the member Ian McKelvie for bringing this bill to the House. The racing industry is part of really the culture of New Zealand and it's full of characters. I'd have to say the member who's brought the bill to the House is one of the characters of the House so I think it's apt and appropriate that he has done so. I just wonder whether that member may have got his ideas about BYO from when he attended the Lord's Cricket Ground some years ago at a cricket final with another member not far from him over there where we discovered—and I was there—that actually Lord's had a very liberal attitude towards BYO as long as it was champagne. It was quite interesting to wander around the ground afterwards to see champagne bottles liberally scattered across the floor in a way that maybe Lion or Tui beer cans would be in New Zealand. So maybe that was where the idea was born. I'm from a family that was deeply embedded in the racing industry. In fact I had an uncle Uncle Jim who was actually a horse doper. He was a vet—he wasn't allowed to be called a vet; he was a technician. But it was a little bit embarrassing. The preferred doping method in those days was arsenic. It was a little bit risky: you could actually get a very fast horse or a very dead horse as it came round into the back straight but he was very proud of the fact that none of his ever died in the front straight. What happened after the meeting was another story. But coming back to the bill Madam Speaker—which I know that you're always keen that we do as speakers—I will actually be supporting this bill. Yes we have heard some of the arguments against that. In fact I think it's a bit ironic that the previous speaker Ricardo Menéndez March did bring in other substances into this. One of the main arguments—and I was a supporter of legalising cannabis during the referendum last year for the very reason that he opposes this which is because I think it brought it out from behind the shelter sheds if you like and it actually gave a lot better ability to control that particular substance. In this way too I don't think for a moment that without the ability for families to enjoy a drink—the bottle of wine or a couple of beers at a country race meeting—I don't think it would stop but what it would do would be to actually push it into the shadows if you like and really inhibit the ability to actually have any control over that behaviour at all. So in bringing together the fact that this does allow a continuation of what is a big tradition—I mean my own family gather on Boxing Day at the Westport races. It's very much a tradition and I have to say that many of my family—some of them actually don't drink at all but still go along. Some of them do I might say. But like many things I think we're generally learning to take a better and more responsible attitude towards alcohol. In fact it's interesting to see that alcohol consumption has gone down particularly among younger people and in fact it's older people the statistics are showing who are actually drinking more. One of the worst things about gambling in this country—and I have to say that there's not much good about pokie machines and they don't actually add anything to the economy. At least with racing whatever you think of gambling or gambling harm there is an associated industry that actually produces quite heavily for this country by way of exports and by way of reputation and don't we all love it when a New Zealand horse wins a significant race in Australia or elsewhere in the world? So that's another reason. If we're going to keep that industry going—an industry that's been badly affected by the ability of the betting dollar to go elsewhere—then it's important that we do attract another generation. It's not just another generation; it's other cultures that are coming into this country and I think there's no better way to introduce them to something that was actually pretty much traditional. As the introducer of the bill said it's rugby racing and beer. It can go beyond that. This will allow it and I think we're slowly generationally—the fact that our younger people are drinking a lot less than their parents and grandparents shows that this is a way to ensure that they can drink responsibly. I'll be supporting this bill.