Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I rise to be a breath of fresh air after the contribution made by the Greens. I have to say it was a little bit of doom and gloom that might have made everybody feel a little bit depressed in the House and certainly back home. Sorry about that Mr Coates but I have to say you are on your own on that one.Let me give you some positives in the racing industry because it sounds not so positive when you listen to the Greens. The racing industry involves about 52000-plus people every year. Now a lot of those people are volunteers. Community groups use the racing industry to have their events to house community engagements etc. It employs over 17000 people and contributes over $1.6 billion towards our economy. We have got over a thousand race meetings with over a million people a year—families and communities—going along to those racing events to be part of the community. I do not want to coin this phrase because it is certainly not mine but it is part of our culture: rugby racing and beer. I am not suggesting that is it for everybody but I am telling you that for a lot of people rugby racing and beer make up a lot big part of it.I have to say that this industry is in crisis. This industry has been in crisis for 9 years and I am not pointing the bone across the House at my dear friend Mr Bennett because he has been in the job for only 3 months. You know that any opportunity I would possibly get to chastise him I would certainly take but today is not one of those opportunities. What we do have to look at is the 9 long years that we have been waiting for real substantial change in the racing industry which—full stop—has not come. We have seen four Ministers for Racing in that time: John Carter Craig Foss—albeit he was there for only 6 months and he had his valedictory speech tonight—6 years with Nathan Guy at the helm and now for the last 3 months we have Dave Bennett who has been given a hospital pass because nobody wants to be carrying this baby on the pre-penultimate day of the 51st Parliament which is today. It is the pre-penultimate day. The biggest disgrace I have to say about Mr Bennett is that he did not fight hard enough to get this bill through this House under urgency because this is absolutely what the industry needs.If we go back to between 2005—Hon David Bennett: We can—we can. Do it tonight. Let's do it tonight.CLAYTON MITCHELL: You bring it on. Mate you know we want this bill through because this is what the racing industry needs. It is only one of the things that this racing industry needs. It is absolutely in the weeds and it is in the weeds because of the lack of any direction or drive or motivation from the Ministers whom we have had before this Minister to do something about it. They have lain idle sat on their hands—they have been asleep at the wheel.Now it is time for change. This should be through in urgency. The last time that this country saw some real substantial change was between 2005 and 2008. The Minister for Racing then was of course the Rt Hon Winston Peters and do you know what? He did not say he was going to do it. He did not go around and boast that he was going to fix the industry. He did not make any mad claims that this is something that needs doing. He just got in there quietly he tipped the industry upside down and he created opportunities for what I would call—and many people around this country would call—the poster child for added-value exports. When you talk about the $1.6 billion industry the racing industry with huge amounts of scope and opportunity to grow and develop it all it needs is the right Government support to get in behind it. I can tell you right now we will have this mess cleaned straight up after this election if we get the opportunity to be in power and to make those changes that are required. We have done it before and the Rt Hon Winston Peters will make sure that we do it again.The interesting thing that we have got is that this is not the only problem with the racing industry. There are a number of problems that need fixing this being just one of them and one that Mr Ian McKelvie has said is complicated. He tried to justify in the House just earlier why it has taken so long to actually get this piece of legislation in front of this House like we are seeing here tonight. In fact it has taken 9 years despite having the offshore racing and sports betting working group which is the only thing that Nathan Guy can take credit for doing in the 6 years of his leadership in this portfolio. Mr McKelvie said this: It's complicated when it comes to extracting money from overseas." Well it is not complicated when you largely copy and paste legislation that they already have in place in Australia and we as the law-abiding moralistic country that we are are already paying levies to the Australian TABs under similar legislation. So how can he sit here in this House and justify the 9 years that it has taken for this legislation to get here while they are sitting idle on their hands? In actual fact they have already got it across the Tasman. We are already paying those fees.When you talk about the Greens being worried about harm minimisation—of course we have heard it from Labour as well. Harm minimisation is the latest buzzword of course because if you look at the harm of gambling we are actually in a minimal state right now. Harm minimisation—we are declining the harm with regard to gambling. It has actually got infrastructure and wraparound services to ensure that we get it. This bill however enables more money to be put into the industry to create a better infrastructure of wraparound services for harm minimisation. So to use that as your argument to not support this bill is absolute lunacy which we would expect I dare have to say.The $58 million that New Zealanders are currently spending online with our Australian brethren within their racing organisations is money and opportunity lost that New Zealand should be getting. We have over $300 million worth of offshore bets that we should actually be clipping the ticket on. The New Zealand Racing Board is in a particularly bad state. It needs a serious shake-up and some work needs to be done there. Why it has taken this long to get this legislation here begs belief. We are saying right now that the Aussies really had this right a number of years ago. They approached New Zealand. We said: "That makes sense. We'll absolutely ensure that we pay our fair share to your bookmakers and your online gamblers. We would just expect that to be reciprocated." It does not take 9 years. There is no excuse for the time that it has taken to get there.This industry is full of passionate people from the horse trainers the vets those who get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to shovel a whole lot of you-know-what and to move it around—it is a passion for the industry. It is a lifestyle and in many cases it is a lifestyle that goes generations deep. When we walked around the Karaka sales earlier on this year the comment that I cannot lambast enough is that it is an industry that is in crisis. They feel like they are not being heard and they feel like there is no solution coming forth. This is very very late in the piece. Like I said it should be under urgency. Without these poster-child industries in our country which New Zealand First talks about—the poster child of added-value exports—we are seriously going to be in a dire situation.It is very interesting to see the number of mares the high-quality mares that even Mr McKelvie spoke about—we are one of the top five countries in the world that is renowned for racing yet we are selling off so much of our quality bloodstock to keep the industry afloat in this country. Our mares our fillies—they need to be retained in this country. It needs to be profitable. They need the support. New Zealand First is behind them. The Rt Hon Winston Peters has made it very very clear in the past about what he will do and we will make sure that that happens again come 23 September when we are putting together a Government.To wrap things up I cannot lambast that enough. I just want to let you know with regard to the many families around New Zealand that are involved in racing and those who are not necessarily involved in racing—but there is a resurgence in families going to the races on a Saturday afternoon or on a particular day for an event; Boxing Day races and the like. My wife and I and my family we go along regularly to the races to participate. In fact a few years ago we bought ourselves a racehorse which was a great endless pit that we poured money into but there is nothing quite like standing there in your box watching your horse come thundering down the finish line in seventh position—and all that money you have invested. But you know what it is going to a good cause.Just in finishing another area that needs some attention is the ambiguity around the lack of direction that the IRD and Treasury have when it comes to assisting racing. It is very very misleading. They have twisted some of these rules and regulations which is making it hard for the racing industry to look at. These are some of the other issues along with the minimum State money that needs to be implemented into the racing industry. This is a step in the right direction. It should be under urgency and it should have been done in this term of the Government along with a whole raft of other ideas that need to be implemented. Just see our New Zealand First racing policy to get some more ideas. You might want to check it out also Minister. Thank you."