Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's with great pleasure that I speak in support of the Racing Industry Bill in the second reading. As a former racing Minister I only had a few months in that role and there wasn't really time to enable us to make the changes that were needed within the industry. I was just going to congratulate the New Zealand First Minister at this time Winston Peters who has done a fantastic job over many years of being an advocate for the racing industry and has made this bill go through Parliament. So I just want to thank him for actually doing this because on behalf of the industry it has been something that's been looked forward to for a long time.I'm going to give him a little bit of a brickbat though at the same time because it has been the end of a parliamentary term before we actually get to the stage of passing this. On the desk when he took over the ministerial position he had the ideas that were needed to actually go ahead. So it has taken a long time. It's taken a long time but we have got there in the end and that's good. [Interruption] It's good to see there's that vocal support amongst the Parliament because racing has felt for a long time that it hasn't had the recognition in the parliamentary process that it felt it deserved and to see that we've got active members of this House engaging in this debate today shows that it is now something that people are very much encouraged to take an active interest in.I just want to thank all members of the House that have been on the Transport and Infrastructure Committee that have done a fantastic job in getting it to the stage and especially to the National members especially Ian McKelvie and Andrew Bayly and Tim van de Molen that have been so active in making the changes to this bill to make sure it is practical and achieves the goals that the bill was actually intended to do. Although I wasn't on that committee I understood that it was a bill that needed a lot of work to be done on it and it was Andrew Bayly and Ian McKelvie and Tim van de Molen that did that hard lifting to change it to make sure it is practical and successful. So thank you to our members of the committee that were on the bill.When we look at racing and when we look at what's happening here at the moment—you know I think Andrew's speech was very good where he went through the TAB and the intellectual property part of it and how important that is to distinguish so that there is that ability to maintain that intellectual property should anything happen to the TAB. That's a fundamental part of the change that you're seeing coming through in the bill now and that's something that I know Andrew spent a lot of time in really pushing from his commercial background. The governance arrangements of the TAB and also Racing New Zealand are to reflect the major players of the industry being the three codes but also to reflect that the TAB actually has a big role in sports betting and also the independent role of others on that board as well—it is important to give it the strength that it needs to carry on. The arrangements between those two boards around the accountability between them to give more support to decision making and also to give the codes a feeling that they are being listened to and they have a TAB that works with them and for them I think is something that they have been looking forward to especially.Then we look at the individual codes and their role of appointing to Racing New Zealand and that's another part of the changes that we've seen throughout the process that's a core of the bill. Then we get to the sale of surplus tracks which had been a major issue and still is a major issue especially when tracks feel that they haven't received the ability or the licence you could say to operate not having race dates. That puts them in a very difficult predicament in managing their operations and effectively challenges them about the ability of their racetrack to continue. That is a difficult process and there's still a lot to be done in that area. I know that the committee has spent a lot of time in a very detailed process of looking at a number of tests to determine whether there should be the transfer by Order in Council of surplus venues or to allow parties to renegotiate their position. There is trying to be in those tests a degree of comfort to those clubs that if they don't have the race dates that they require there is a process there so that they can have some negotiation and look at their individual circumstances.So this bill is long overdue. It is something which the racing industry has been looking forward to for a long long time. Every time we delay this bill the racing industry loses money. As Andrew Bayly said it's an industry that has a proud history and as the Minister said it actually has very proud achievements in just the last day or so. You know it's an industry that has a bright future ahead of it if we're looking at a productive primary-based New Zealand economy that's going to take on the world and succeed. We are good at breeding horses we're good at training horses we're good at racing horses and we've got the best people that can manage horses buy horses and look after horses in this country. The success and passion of those people deserve a Parliament that passes legislation that's in their best interests and that's the really important bit that I think—they will be looking at this Parliament and saying Finally we're being acknowledged and something is being done to try and stem the flow of losses and the difficulties the industry was facing so that we can actually celebrate the successes and rebuild an industry that is world class and has a tremendous future ahead of it."So this is a good day for racing in New Zealand to see Parliament coming together and supporting this bill. I know that the sector will be very pleased to see members of Parliament coming in with that support not only through this legislation but in their support of the hard work that those people do every day because they are passionate about their horses and they're passionate about the industry they're part of. They're good keen New Zealanders that really do work hard and try and do the very best for—Barbara Kuriger: Employ a lot of people.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Yeah there is a lot of employment but there are a lot of employees there that work really hard and to see Parliament supporting them I think that will be something that they're very pleased to see. We recommend this bill to the House and thank everyone involved for getting it to the stage that we can get support from all the parties effectively that are the main players and get this bill through. Thank you Madam Speaker."