Martin Tracey: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5237. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker thank you very much. Well that contribution was interesting. I think it certainly raised the blood pressure in here. We have had interesting dialogue. None of it was particularly surprising bar one thing. There are a couple of things that I did not know before we started. One is that Judith Collins is my very good friend—and I appreciate that Ms Collins. I appreciate that and it is a joy to know. It is a joy to know that something like this can bring two sides closer together. So I appreciate that Ms Collins. Thank you very much. The other thing that I did not know before I started—well I kind of did know it but it has been reinforced for me—was around Mr Seymour’s contribution. So Mr Seymour’s contribution apart from being somewhat muddled was that he believes this Act should be repealed. He believes absolutely that it should never have been passed into law. He absolutely categorically believes that this Government should not have signed that Act but he will not vote against it. He will not vote to repeal something that he believes is fundamentally wrong. This Act is totally against his party’s principles totally against his values but no no he cannot bring himself to actually stand up for those things and vote to repeal it.I want to thank my colleagues from the Opposition. I think that we have had very intelligent debate from this side of the House. Metiria Turei’s contribution was absolutely invaluable. She is right: this has nothing to do with the convention centre. This piece of legislation repeals an Act that gives corporate welfare. My bill would repeal an Act that provides a private business with something that nobody else gets: a protection until 2048—protection that nobody else in Auckland City has got. I challenge the member Mr Simon O’Connor who again is a lovely man and I am sure that the voters in Tāmaki find him particularly pleasant. I saw a photo of him with a large chocolate Labrador the other day and again I bet you that got lots of favourites.What I would challenge him on is that I am not confident that he is correct when he says that Aucklanders want this convention centre. Aucklanders voted through consultation with their local government for a sinking lid on pokie machines. Aucklanders were consulted by Auckland City in 2009 and 2010 and across the board they voted for a sinking lid on pokie machines in the by-laws of Auckland City. And what has happened is that this Government has decided it knows better than the people of Auckland and that it is not going to listen to the voice of Auckland which said: “We want a sinking lid. We want these things to actually slowly become less and less and less.” It has decided that it is going to strike a deal for an international convention centre.And this is not about a convention centre. This bill is merely about legislative change that gave somebody an unfair advantage. That is all it is about—that is all it is about. If you read it it is not very long. No it is not very long and I think that is really interesting. We kept it brief for the benefit of the Government. We know that the Government members particularly the backbenchers do not normally read the legislation that they have to speak on. We kept it very very short so that we could have possibly some level of understanding by those members who actually had to stand and speak on it. Whoever has handed out the notes that have been passed back and forth along the backbench: well done very good nice bullet points everybody used them. So it is disappointing. That is actually disappointing.The bill is very simple. It is about removing a protection—a protection for a deal that has changed. Skycity is not going to deliver the deal that it signed on. It is also a concern that Mr O’Connor Mr Seymour and Ms Lee tried to suggest to the New Zealand public that there is a $400 million debt here. Well there is not yet but when Skycity gets halfway through building the convention centre and then comes back for money New Zealand there very well may be one. The question is: if there is debt involved with actually removing this legislation from this Parliament who struck that deal? The same people who are asking us to trust them because they are such good negotiators for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.