Coddington Deborah: Gambling Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Coddington Deborah: Gambling Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT) 
: 
 I am taking over the debate on the Gambling Amendment Bill for two of my colleagues especially Heather Roy who has followed it all the way through and has provided quite a bit of cooperation with the Government on this. As she stated in her first reading contribution the attempt was actually made to put it through as a statutory amendment. 
Rod Donald 
: It should have been. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Maybe that is the case but that would have been an abuse of the power of Statutes Amendment bills which are meant for non-controversial issues. As we have already seen by the debate in the House this is not a non-controversial issue. Mr Peters actually had a good point when he asked—but did not answer—where else other than gambling can one say: “Here’s all my money. Take all my money and I’ll see what I get back from it.” 
The other example of that happening is with this Government in taxes. It takes more and more taxes from taxpayers every day. Every week new tax laws are passed and what do they get back from them? What are schools getting back from taxes at the moment? Schools are getting less and less back in terms of what the parents of the children pay in taxes; it is going into bigger and bigger bureaucracies. Schools are seriously underfunded. Paying one’s taxes in New Zealand now is a huge gamble because people never know what they will get back or whether they will get any money back. One reason that most people pay their taxes and are happy to pay their taxes is for the investment in the education of the future citizens of this country but that is just not happening. 
I also agree with some of what Marc Alexander said. I do not deny that there is a huge problem with gambling in this country. I take the Rt Hon Winston Peters’ word that it is a huge problem in the Maori communities but there is an issue of personal responsibility here. People talk about gambling addiction. In what way is it a chemical that gets into one’s bloodstream or one’s system like drinking or smoking or other drugs that become an addiction? 
It is dangerous to blur the edges between addictions and problems. There are huge problems. There are families who go without because one or both parents are problem gamblers. But why does this happen when we see in the paper clients of casinos who are allowed to rack up huge debts credit to the extent of— 
Hon Member 
: $21 million. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: I find that very difficult to believe. I would have absolutely no sympathy with gambling operators or the owners of gambling institutions if they lost every cent of that money because they are clearly stupid in allowing someone to rack up a debt as high as that. No one would be able to go down to his or her local hardware shop and rack up such a high debt. Clearly people have a problem with gambling if they run up a debt that is so high. 
The other area Mr Peters touched upon concerns horses and I totally agree with him on that. We had an internationally recognised world-class industry in New Zealand with the breeding training and export of thoroughbred racehorses. It would be beneath the elite people in the Labour Party today to go down to somewhere like the Matamata training track before dawn at 4 o’clock or even 2 o’clock in the morning and to see what goes on there in terms of the huge amounts of money going into the local economy from horses. But what do breeders trainers and owners get from that? They get hit with more and more taxes. Industry charges even accident compensation alone that some of them have to pay for taking on apprentice jockeys along with all the associated costs and compliance costs that go with being a trainer in the industry these days are greater than the income that people get back out of the industry. Why? Because no Government will ever equalise the taxes that are forced out of them on gambling issues. 
I support this Gambling Amendment Bill. I notice that its first reading was done under urgency. That is because of poorly drafted legislation—legislation this Government rushed through because it overlooked the fact that there are honourable people who are members of and can run a licensing trust and who can make decisions about where the proceeds from those gaming machines should go in the community. I find it highly ironic that this Government prides itself on supporting the arts and sport in New Zealand—but predominantly the arts—and that hardly a week goes by when we do not see another photo opportunity of the Prime Minister or her sidekick Judith Tizard being photographed at some arty-farty art opening yet much of the proceeds from gaming machines goes into local community arts projects whether at local theatres exhibitions or productions. 
All MPs in this House would have had letter after letter numerous letters from those local arts communities theatres and repertory groups that feared they would be forced to close because of this Government’s move against the distribution of the proceeds of gambling within the community. What New Zealand First has accused this Government of is absolutely right. The Government is always trying to wrest control from communities back to Wellington and to control them from Wellington. That is what this Government is all about so why does it not just admit that that is what it is proud of being: essentially a controlling Government with no interest in communities? 
It has no interest in communities being autonomous. Members can look at the way schools were closed down or at the way the Government treats boards of trustees. Nobody is allowed to be autonomous. We can look at what the Government is doing to universities. 
So ACT supports this amendment bill going through. It is a tragedy that the legislation has come back in this form yet again in urgency but we will vote for it.