Rurawhe Adrian: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 27 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4099. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Talofa lava. Malo Samoa. Malo le soifua. It is a pleasure to speak on the Gambling Amendment Bill (No 3) in this second reading. I want to acknowledge the 126 submitters who sent their submissions from problem gambling organisations to venues and societies to individuals. I want to thank them all because I think they contributed greatly to the amendments that have been made to this bill which I think have made this bill a lot better than it was at its first reading.The Labour Party will be supporting this bill but we do have some concerns. I want to thank the Minister of Internal Affairs for addressing those very concerns that we have in his speech first up. There is the issue around commission payment. A number of problem gambling organisations made submissions about their concerns about putting in place a commission-based payment system. Their concerns as the Minister said were around incentivising gambling so that venues would be better off with the more money that went through those machines and in so doing it would put their host responsibilities at risk. We want to highlight that.I have heard what the Minister has said and maybe there is room for a Supplementary Order Paper to make sure that that happens. One of the models that could be used in developing a commission payment system could be to place a cap on the percentage or the total amount that any venue can gain from one particular machine. I think that could address that issue so I guess the challenge for this House in taking up what the Minister has said is to make this bill even better than it is now. If we were to put something in this bill as a Supplementary Order Paper—and I am sure that I am bound to want to do that—it would be to make certain that the commission-based system does not incentivise more gambling.I have to point out that at the end of last year in the Department of Internal Affairs mystery shopperstudy only one of the 102 venues was compliant. So that does not give me a lot of encouragement about some of the venues actually being in a position at this time to not take the incentive of a commission-based system. That is why it is really important I believe that we think carefully about that and make sure that the commission-based payment system does not incentivise gambling.The other area that I want to pay particular attention to is harm minimisation measures. I think that we have missed an opportunity here. I believe that at every single opportunity when we are talking about gambling and the Gambling Amendment Bill (No 3) before us we should have and could have taken stronger measures around minimising the harm caused by gambling. The Minister mentioned—and it was also raised in the minority reports—implementing a pre-commitment system. Other countries have implemented this very system and I believe it is incumbent upon this Parliament to actually make sure that we have every opportunity to implement systems that do address the harm caused by gambling. Two of the submitters—I will not mention them by name—on two separate occasions spoke to the Government Administration Committee about their experiences of the harm that they have suffered through gambling. That was very passionate it was very powerful and what was very clear to me was that a system that actually worked around pre-commitment could have prevented the experience that they had had to go through. So I want to thank those two particular submitters who told us in very raw detail about the effect that gambling had had on their lives.There are some good things in this bill and that is why our party is supporting it. We have already heard from the Minister about the suitability of key persons and the key persons’ issues that are addressed in this bill. I want to focus on the benefits with conditions attached. The inclusion of just one word altered the whole of clause 16 to the satisfaction of the many many submitters who submitted against this particular clause and that was the inclusion of the word “improper”. Just one word and it changed the whole nature of the clause. Feedback from those submitters indicated that the inclusion of that word has addressed their issues because their issues were about things like being able to pay their staff because the clause had some unintended consequences that meant that as key persons they would not be able to walk into the pub of another society’s venue and order their dinner and a drink without breaking this law. So that is a proper thing for them to be able to do. The intention of the clause was to eliminate improper actions. So that was something that collectively as a select committee we were able to address.There were a number of submissions around the definition of a “relative” and that issue also was addressed. It was narrowed down to parents son daughter spouse or partner rather than the wider whānau. Some of us have got really big whānau which would have meant that we and the rest of our family would all be unable to carry out a normal transaction if we were a key person. Also we extended the limitations from 2 years to 5 years because there were indications that cases had been advised through the proper authorities but they were out of time. Two years seemed to be too short and so that has now been extended to 5 years. Also there are some specific clauses that the New Zealand Racing Board needed to be addressed and those amendments address those issues to an extent that I understand that it is satisfied. I am not sure whether all its members are happy but they are certainly satisfied with the amendments that have been made.So finally I just want to again thank the submitters and also acknowledge the members of the Government Administration Committee for the work that has been done. I also acknowledge the Minister again for acknowledging those key issues and concerns we have with this bill. Nō reira tēnā tātou.