Henare Tau: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
Henare Tau: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:987] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 National will support this bill because it is necessary and it is timely. I congratulate—and I never thought I would ever say this—the Minister in charge of the bill Trevor Mallard. I have to say it quickly in case it hurts too much. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: You could have a heart attack. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely. The present Minister the Hon Murray McCully and before him the Hon John Banks have done sports in this country a very very good service and I congratulate them all. But it is more serious than just aligning ourselves with a code. I note and the Minister pointed out for his own reasons that the code this legislation will put us alongside is not in here. I would have thought that at least it would be included as an attachment or be in the schedule so that when people are reading the bill they can see the international code right there and have a look at it. Sports are part of our national identity. They are part and parcel of what makes us the people we are. It is not only the All Blacks but also the netballers— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: The cyclists. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Cyclists you name it we have them. We compete on an international stage far above what our population ratio should be. We are a country of sportspeople. I am also glad to say that the Minister answered my question about whether this was designed for people at club level. Although he said yes my worry is that the bill is all about the glamour people. It is all about the glamour pusses who get all the kudos around the world. It is never about the 18-year-old who may have been forced into doing something that he or she should not have at a club level just so that person can go the extra mile and that is something we need to put a lot of our energies into. 
I point out to the House that there are the internationally named people like Robin Tait who was not just rumoured to take steroids but did take steroids. He took performance-enhancing drugs and it killed him. Robin Tait was as my colleague said dead in his 40s. There are also the glamour athletes like Flo Jo. We all thought she was a great athlete. She passed away in her 40s. 
Eric Roy 
: Tim Montgomery! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I will come to Tim Montgomery in a minute. In this country we should be putting pressure on international bodies in relation to the whole issue of sports doping. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a great character—“I’ll be back.” He took anabolic steroids. [ 
Interruption 
] I suppose that is the reason why he is not a very well-liked man at the moment. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: A famous Tory like Tau Henare. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Here we go. The Noddy from the north has nothing better to do than to come down to the House— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Christian names not nicknames are to be used in the House. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It was not a nickname Mr Assistant Speaker it was a derogatory name. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Well it is unparliamentary. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I withdraw and apologise Mr Assistant Speaker. That unfortunate person lost his seat because the voters in the north decided enough was enough. I always said that if I could not beat Dover Samuels I did not deserve the seat and I still believe that. I am so grateful to the people of Te Tai Tokerau that they put their faith in a person who is willing to go the extra mile—and he already has. Here is some interesting stuff and this is a wide-ranging debate: the former electorate office of the past member for Te Tai Tokerua Mr Dover Samuels—talking about doping—is now Te Atatu’s first knock-shop. Does that have anything to do with doping? There was the former leaseholder and now there is a new leaseholder—it must be all about doping. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will come back to the bill. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I just did Mr Assistant Speaker and it is a wide-ranging debate. I want to talk about the drug-induced frenzy of performance-enhancing drugs. It will make people do anything. It will make them accept things that they would not normally accept. It will make people underperform not overperform. It will create havoc in communities. Like any drug dependency there is a price. It is a sad life and it is a false life. It is depressing for those who are around such people and it can even lead to break-ups in the family. 
The new designer drug on the market today is “Winstone Alone”. Members might laugh at it but it is a performance-enhancing drug. It is about a quick shot of a hormone-enhancing drug that has some sad side effects. 
 It is depressing for those who are around people on this new drug “Winstone Alone”. It can lead to a false life it can lead to a sad life and it is not performance enhancing at all. All it leads to is living out a lie. When one is on this drug one is living out a lie. 
I want to congratulate the Minister again and also those people who have been part of the whole industry of sport because that is what it is—an industry and we do have to clean it up. I want now to refer to Tim Montgomery and this touches on one of my major concerns about this bill. Tim Montgomery the 100 metres world record holder was suspended for 2 years. He was suspended without testing positive. That happened because he was caught up in the big scandal and because of the evidence of somebody else. He has not tested positive at any stage of his career. He is the world record holder of the 100 metres. 
Are we aligning ourselves to a system where there is justice for all? What about access to the courts? What about access to justice for those who are caught up in some way shape or form? That is what I want the select committee to look at when this bill comes before it. There is no code as part of this bill. It is not attached and I think it should be. People will then be able to look at the international code and know what we have actually signed up to do. I am glad that the Minister said that yes people can be tested if they are a member of a sports organisation and play sport. I want again to congratulate the Minister.