Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to speak to the second reading of the Racing Reform Bill. Can I begin by acknowledging the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister to get this bill to a second reading. I would imagine that there are people in the offices of thoroughbred racing of harness racing of greyhound racing and the sports codes around the country who have been waiting for some time for this reform to take place who will be extremely thankful for the fact that this piece of legislation has got to this stage and hopefully will be passed soon to give some certainty not just to those boards but also to the many New Zealanders who work in the racing industry. I think for some time there has been quite a degree of uncertainty about the future of betting revenue the future of small clubs and large clubs and networks of clubs around the country and their ability to survive and they have been looking for leadership from this Parliament for some time. Through this piece of legislation they will finally get the mechanisms to try and retain as much of the revenue from sports betting here in New Zealand. They'll have a national structure which I think will give them the confidence to make some of the important changes within their codes and within their clubs to make sure that whatever that future looks like it will be a sustainable one. Can I acknowledge also the previous speaker Ian McKelvie who—we've been to a few race meets together and who along with the Deputy Prime Minister understands the fundamentals of the racing industry. The racing industry is one of those industries around the country that you know even though they do have racing events does plug away quietly and does have a significant economic impact especially in some of our regional areas. So that impact economically that impact with jobs—I think I heard the Deputy Prime Minister say during one of our debates $1.6 billion the last time it was counted—should not be sniffed at and that ability for those local clubs to continue to have race meets to support their local communities. At the other end of the industry for some of our best trained and bred horses to be ambassadors for the New Zealand racing industry in other big racing forums is a huge potential for us but it hasn't for some time been maximised. I think the beginning of a renaissance of racing could come to fruition—and hopefully will come to fruition—by the fact that we're giving the racing sector and the sporting sector the ability once and for all to sort itself out. One of the big issues has been what the industry has called leakage" and that is New Zealand punters who punt on overseas races on overseas betting forums usually online. A lot of revenue has been lost out of what would usually have been taken by the TAB and has been placed on bets overseas. A lot of that revenue is lost to our shores and therefore lost to some of the sports codes and the racing codes here in New Zealand and they have felt that. This bill goes quite a long way to making sure that some of the revenue from those bets that are placed overseas can be retained here in New Zealand. I think that's a good thing and that will flow back into New Zealand's racing sector. The other thing in terms of online betting is that a lot of those online betting platforms have been using New Zealand - based events or races to offer as a product and essentially have been paying nothing for it. So we might have a rugby game here in New Zealand or a horse race or a greyhound race in New Zealand and an online platform in the likes of the UK can take bets on that and not one cent of any of that revenue is of benefit to the sporting code or to the club that is holding that race meet here in New Zealand. Again fundamentally this piece of legislation will work to make sure that we take action and regulations to get some of that revenue here again importantly to pump into the sector. I think when you look at some of the challenges at the grassroots some of the clubs around the country really have been struggling to hold as many race meets as they have done in the past and that is a sign of the times. But in amongst that it's the ability to pay good amounts to those winners. Hopefully by the gathering up of more revenue and giving them the ability to do that—and I think some decisions made by race clubs around the country—they can offer a better product. I think the standard of the horses and the races will lift and then I guess also from that that export market that is extremely important to the racing sector in New Zealand can grow and therefore we get more revenue from it. As I say this has been a long time coming and I do again want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Winston Peters for his commitment to it to drive it through at this point in this Government's term. As I say I think there will be a lot of people within racing and within the sporting sector extremely happy that we're taking this piece of legislation and getting it through in a timely manner to give them the options not just to survive but also to expose our racing industry in a better way as an export market too. So with that I commend this bill to the House."