Guy NathanHon NATHAN GUY (National—Ōtaki): Thanks very much Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a great opportunity to take a call on what is a very important bill for the New Zealand racing industry the Racing Reform Bill and we've had a lot of discussion this afternoon about how we got to this point. I want to take us back a bit because as a former racing Minister I worked very hard to get the Racing Amendment Bill into this House through the Cabinet process into the select committee and then in the Primary Production Committee it just stalled. It stalled for months on end and we kept asking Mark Patterson who sits on the Primary Production Committee What's happening—what's happening? You better talk to your boss. This has just stalled." It stalled and what happened was somewhere in the middle of all of that there was the Messara report and then that kicked off. So then we had a very interesting discussion in the select committee where we had to report back on a bill that had effectively been discharged. All of the work that we did to get it to that point—I was so disappointed. We had the racing industry virtually begging the select committee to get it—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Madam Assistant Speaker. Look as illuminating as this is this debate is about this bill not the last bill that was dealt with by the committee and frankly—I mean he's well into his speech and it's this bill he has to be talking about.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I thank the honourable gentleman; that is a debating point.Hon NATHAN GUY: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I know that the Minister's very sensitive and—Rt Hon Winston Peters: No I'm not.Hon NATHAN GUY: Yes because he just got to his feet and raised a point of order which was really just a debating point and I'm sure he'll have quite a bit of time this afternoon to actually get to his feet again and make a contribution instead of making tacky points of order—if I can please get back to where I was because it's really important when you look at the context of this bill. We had a very similar bill in the select committee. The select committee debated it we had submissions and then it came to the point of reporting back—and I'm looking forward to hearing from Mark Patterson this afternoon because he was sitting in the select committee running errands back to the Minister for Racing and he couldn't report back and say what was happening. It stalled. As a result the racing industry suffered—we estimate $15 to $16 million—while we waited for this bill. Now this bill is a cut and paste of the National Government's bill and he's added some more things in—the Minister has. So pretty much you can do it—I think it's control alt 7 or 9 on the keyboard—you can cut and paste documents and bring them into the bill. Well that's what a lot of this bill is. It's a cut-and-paste bill of the National Party's bill that was in the select committee which we had a robust debate on then everything stalled. Now that's the history a very important history lesson for the Minister. Then we think about this bill now and there's been wide discussion about some of the additional pieces of this bill that the Minister has added in. We heard this afternoon from our sports spokesperson Nikki Kaye saying "Are the codes aware that effectively what is currently in the Act—how disbursements are made—is going to come out of the Act and be set by the Minister through Order in Council and the Cabinet process?" Are the sports bodies aware of that fact? If they are what do the parents think of this?At the moment you have something in the Act that is effectively going to come out and be a regulatory-making power. I think that when sports codes and mum and dads who stand on the netball court or the rugby field on Saturday morning supporting their kids realise this they'll want to come and make a contribution through the select committee process but of course there isn't time. There's only two weeks for this bill when the Messara report has been out and about for months. So this is a truncated select committee process when a lot of the people that it's going to impact aren't even going to realise that they're going to have an opportunity to submit because within 13 or 14 days the select committee have to report back by 11 June.Also when we have a look at the Messara report we know there's a lot that isn't already in this bill that the Minister wanted to get in but because of the way the coalition works he's got support by Labour and the Greens on this one—and I'm not sure if the Greens are sticking with this one right through or just for first reading; we'll need to wait and see on that. But there's a couple of other aspects in the Messara report that are going to be following through in another bill and they are: floating the TAB effectively allowing—it could be—Australians to come in and own part of it. I wonder what the Green Party think of that. I'm not sure that the Minister will get the support of his coalition partner to get that part of the next bill through. What about all this rationalisation of tracks that is being proposed in the Messara report? I can't see that sitting anywhere in this one because that's very hot politics and I'm sure the Minister knows that one. There's another aspect that's not in this bill which is about product mix because to entice people to come and gamble via the TAB you need to have a fresh product and product mix is not part of this bill. But wait I think that it will be in due course—potentially in this Parliament—that we may be back debating a racing reform bill part 2 and then of course the Minister will need to reach out to this side of the House to get that bill passed. So we'll wait with interest to see about that. Also there is an aspect in this bill about the three codes and the three codes are very important: harness thoroughbred and greyhounds. Of course the issue's always been: is one bigger than the other? Well the reality is yes. Then if you're going to smash the three codes and have one stand-alone body that doesn't acknowledge the codes and have the same respect for the smaller code which of course is the greyhounds and the dogs—which in terms of return on investment when I had a look at the money they actually return the most. When you think that they have a dog that travels around in the back of the car they don't have big fixed costs. So my challenge back to the Minister—and this will play out in the truncated select committee process—is that if he's going to meddle with the three codes and how it works at the moment he needs to be mindful of the fact always that racing is not just about the big end of town; it's about the small end as well. Finally there is a part to do with repealing the tax duties and the comment I want to make here is that this is likely to be the only tax cut for 2019. This bill is a tax cut for the racing industry and whether it's worthy of it or not I think it needs to be acknowledged that there will be no other tax cuts for hard-working New Zealanders apart from this one that's in this bill. So what we won't hear in the Budget this week is that a tax cut is proposed in Budget 2019. This bill here is a tax cut. So let's not try and gloss over it: it's a tax cut for the racing industry. So we have the coalition Government which is against tax cuts for hard-working New Zealanders but in this bill there is a tax cut for the racing industry. So in summary I think the truncated two-week select committee process doesn't do it justice for the 50000 people that are associated with the racing industry. Now the Minister has been in the chair for about 18 months now. He's had the Messara report for I'd say about five or six months. He's had ample opportunity to bring this bill into the Parliament and before the select committee—and I think it's going to the wrong select committee. It's only going there because last time I checked there's a Government majority. It should have come to the Primary Production Committee where we could have worked on it effectively. But it's going to the wrong select committee it's a truncated process and the 50000 people that want to have their say won't even wake up and have the opportunity."