Goff Phil: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:992. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill):This is a pretty short bill actually. It is only one page. It is about match fixing; that is what the title is. It is the Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill. We have known for a very long time that match fixing is a potential problem. We have also known for a very long time that early next year New Zealand will be hosting the international Cricket World Cup matches—half of them in New Zealand and half of them in Australia. We have known that we have the FIFA U-20 World Cup towards the middle of the year. These are important events.I have got to admit that I was very surprised when Trevor Mallard in his comments on this bill said that actually we have known for 9 years that we are getting these fixtures in New Zealand. If we have known for 9 years that we are getting these fixtures in New Zealand my question to the Minister in the chair Nick Smith is: why are we a week before we rise for Christmas and under some degree of pressure only now bringing this bill before the Committee for its Committee stage?I worry about that because first of all the title is about match fixing. Match fixing we know from all of the information that the Law and Order Committee received and the House has been given including in this departmental disclosure statement that there is a high risk of match fixing. It may be surprising to some New Zealanders but there is big money involved in it. For example the departmental disclosure statement says that international threat assessments warn of the increasing risk of crime syndicates and individuals targeting Australasia for sports match-fixing.Do we need a bill with this title? Yes of course we do. It is important. The disclosure statement also mentions as you will know Mr Chair that there have already been cases of match fixing in Australia and we know in relation to cricket with the Lou Vincent affair and the questions surrounding Chris Cairns that this has also been a problem affecting New Zealanders.This is not something that is without cost to New Zealand economically. Match fixing is bad in its own right because it is the exact opposite of what sport should be about. Sport is meant to be fair. You are meant as a spectator to be able to rely on the outcome of the match reflecting the respective strengths of the contesting teams.But this disclosure statement also points out that “Match-fixing would significantly damage the integrity value and growth of New Zealand sport which contributed $5 billion to our economy”. That is annually and their figures are based upon a number of years ago. So we do need a bill that makes a crime of match fixing.But then I was reading the regulatory impact statement and this really worries me. It says that the objective of having this in place in time for the world cup in February “imposes constraints on the range of legislative options that can be considered.” If we have known about this Minister for 9 years why are we dealing with it in a way that imposes constraints on getting the best bill possible before the House? Nine years. You can imagine back in 2006-07 the Minister was just getting some preliminary information about it. But this thing is getting really close. This could have been done a year ago. It could have been done 2 years ago or 3 years ago. I would not have expected the Government to have done it in 2009 but it should have done it over the last 3 years. This is what else the regulatory impact statement warns the House: “Requiring a Bill to be passed by the end of 2014 means creating comprehensive stand-alone and potentially complex match-fixing legislation is impractical.”Because this Government has been so tardy we have ruled out getting a comprehensive solution to this problem. On the one hand in the departmental disclosure structure they say this is an important problem. This is so important in fact that I think it costs the world $140 billion a year. That is the cost of match fixing.We know we have got important sporting events and the Government does what? It sits on its tail does nothing and rules out some of the important options that should have been considered. I hope Minister you are getting an answer to this question because it is a straightforward valid question going to the heart of whether this is the right piece of legislation to have before the House. I would have thought that—