Dunne Peter: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1799. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Internal Affairs):I move That the Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time. This is a momentous day. This bill was introduced some three Parliaments ago by the Hon Rick Barker. It had its second reading in 2009 under the Hon Dr Richard Worth. Since then Minister Guy Minister Adams Minister Tremain and—now—I have had responsibility for this bill. I can claim that under my stewardship the bill has at least gone through the Committee of the whole House and today we begin the third reading. So nearly 7 years after its introduction this bill stands on the verge of being passed by this House.Hon David Parker: Why don’t you take a short call and we could get it finished?Hon PETER DUNNE: It is going to be a short call. I am not going to traverse the history of the last 7 years. I simply want to make these points about the legislation because some may conclude from that passage of time that it is not actually a significant piece of law. In fact it is because it deals with a lot of the community support that arises from gaming machines and ensuring that as far as possible the funds so derived go to the point where they are meant to go. I think that the amendments contained in the Supplementary Order Paper I introduced during the course of the bill made some important additional changes in that regard.Some changes had to take account of the fact that time had moved on from the time of the introduction of the bill. In particular we have put specified obligations on gambling operators after they are licensed. We now emphasise to gambling operators their responsibilities in having the community at the forefront of their operations and help ensure that operators are part of a clean well-run sector. It is also clear that operators can be held to account if they lose sight of that focus.Gambling always contains a high harm potential so it is important that the Act’s harm prevention and minimisation measures work well and there are a number of useful steps contained within it to achieve those objectives. For example the current requirements for the banking of community money generated by non-casino gaming machines have been strengthened. That has been a problem area for this sector for some time.The bill also enables us to collect better information to publish on grants made to the community by gaming-machine operators. Again this is a move towards greater transparency in an area where there is a lot of public interest and often fascination. There are fresh obligations on grant recipients about how they use the funds that they have been advanced in accordance with the terms of those particular grants.The bill also contains a number of other reforms. I think it is fair to say however that it became clear during the latter stages of the debate that given the rapid changes in the gambling space some of the provisions that this bill contains and some that the companion measure the No. 3 bill which is currently before the select committee also contains may well in short order be overtaken by a move to much greater non-terrestrial gambling. I have indicated that that is an area the Government is looking at in terms of whether there is a requirement for a much broader review of law to take account of that particular area of change.I am not going to name all of the members who sat on the Government Administration Committee. I suspect many of them have gone on to do other things since the bill was first introduced. But I do want to acknowledge the contribution that the committee made. I want to acknowledge the contribution that members during the debates over the years have made. I recall Mr Hipkins’ pining comments at one stage that at the rate of progress he has seen so far he has got three more elections before this bill will finally come into law. I can assure him that that will not be the case. I think he will have to find some other causes to worry about over that time.I do not want to delay the House unduly. I do not want to trivialise what is a very important issue. Despite the delays this bill does bring some forward some worthwhile changes. It has been widely supported. I am delighted to be the Minister who finally commends the third reading of this bill to the House.