Bennett David: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6223. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Today we have heard a number of arguments that are serious arguments made by people who are against the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. We recognise those arguments and I do not think anybody in this House would want to look at those arguments and dissuade the public from the importance of discussing them and also from acknowledging the role that people have had in this House in wanting to make sure that we actually deal with some of those issues. I think they are serious things that everybody in this House takes seriously and would not want to see happen.Then the other side of this argument is that we are dealing with a bill here tonight that is basically one about freedom of choice. Rugby is New Zealand’s national game. The Rugby World Cup is the 1-in-4 year scenario that comes round when New Zealanders celebrate their national game on the world stage. This is the time when people come together whether they are rugby fans or not. They come together in their communities and they support their country on the world stage. To deny our people the ability to celebrate our heritage our culture and our future and history in a public place is to deny our people the very essence of being New Zealanders. Why would we want to do that to our people at their very time of enjoyment and pride in their country? It is not about whether we win or lose. It is about wearing the black jersey out there and representing New Zealand at the highest levels. New Zealanders are proud of their sports teams and they are prouder of no other team than the New Zealand All Blacks team. Why not be part of that pride? Why not let New Zealanders celebrate the success that has been our national game for years and years and will be going into the future? This is what this bill is about. It is not an attempt to hijack the liquor laws that have been passed in this Parliament in recent years. It is in no way an attempt to limit or discourage what those laws attempted to achieve in regard to public and especially family and women’s security in the home and other places.This is a bill that is about giving New Zealanders some enjoyment some pride and some belief in their country. Why do we want to sit in this House and deny our people the very thing that they want to see happen? Nobody forces anybody to go to a bar at 6 o’clock in the morning. Nobody forces any New Zealander to have a drink at that bar. That is a choice that that person may or may not make. That person may well be at home drinking all night and going through to the morning. They may well make those choices in their life but this is not something—and members across the room laugh. Well that will not be a laughing matter. That is a reality where a lot of those domestic violence cases happen—because it will be after a long night of drinking and then the game in the morning when many of those things happen. It is not that people get up at 4 o’clock in the morning suddenly desire to go to the pub and then come home and have those kinds of situations arise.This is an attack by those people who are voting against this bill on the fundamental values of what it means to be a New Zealander. Shame on the Green Party. Why would the Green Party want to vote against a bill that enables New Zealanders to enjoy the culture and heritage of their country? Why would the Green Party want to attack people in their own place doing their own thing? We see members of the Green Party who are laughing. Members who were not born in this country do not understand the culture and heritage of this country. They do not get what it actually means to be a New Zealander to go to the pub and to sit and watch a game wearing a black jersey to actually understand what this game means to our people and our country. I want to congratulate David Seymour on bringing this bill forward to the House. There are local rules around that enable bars to go through this process and to be able to have licences; nobody is not acknowledging that. Those rules exist and they have been used by many bars in many places. But there are some cases where they have not been used and in many of those types of instances we will get to a situation where we will be in the world cup we will be playing games and New Zealanders will not be able to enjoy watching their own team.It is not just about the New Zealanders supporting the All Blacks. There are many New Zealanders in this country who have other teams that they support. There will be a lot of South Africans in New Zealand who will support the South African team. There will be a lot of Tongans. There will be a lot of Samoans. There will be a lot of Fijian families and communities who will want to see their teams play out in the competition. It is unfair to try to limit these rules to one or two games or to games that only the New Zealand All Blacks play in and not to let all New Zealanders watch all games that are part of a competition that we excel in. That is the point of what we are here tonight to discuss. This is not an attack on the laws around liquor licensing. This is not an attempt to dispel any of the arguments that have been made which are strong and substantial about the rights of many of our people in our community. But it is about the ability of New Zealanders to go out there and enjoy their national game to enjoy the camaraderie and the ability to get together as Kiwis and to support our country in our national game in an environment that we can all be proud of—to support our team whatever the result may be. When you look at the Rugby World Cup that is the third-largest sporting event in the world and New Zealand is defending its title this year. We have a great record in recent games. We have a team that is performing well and we have one of the greatest-ever All Blacks who will be playing in his final competition. Imagine Richie McCaw going in to that last game going out there and winning the world cup for New Zealand and New Zealanders not being able to be at the bar to watch it. What would you tell your grandchildren? You could not watch Richie McCaw play because—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Two points: first of all the member has taken about 7 minutes and made only quite passing reference to the bill;secondly the member is not to bring my family into this debate.DAVID BENNETT: I would never bring your family into it Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! That is exactly what the member did. He should think before he speaks.DAVID BENNETT: This bill is about the sale and supply of alcohol during the Rugby World Cup. One of the key things around that world cup will be some of the players playing in that and some of our All Black players who will be playing their last games. Richie McCaw and Dan Carter potentially will be in that team on that day in that game and New Zealanders want to be able to watch that and see that history of our country going forward.Pita Paraone: What about Mealamu?DAVID BENNETT: Pardon?Pita Paraone: What about Nonu? What about Mealamu?DAVID BENNETT: He will be there as well yes. There are others as well. That is what we mean. There are a number of New Zealanders who will be supporting the All Blacks in this game.We have got to look at these games. They are going to be in a different time zone—that is different from the one traditionally in we have watched many of our other games which have been southern hemisphere games. These games are going to be played in the northern hemisphere. They will be at times that are not in tune with the laws that have been passed in the past which have presumed a New Zealand environment with a New Zealand time zone. So this Parliament should be able to exercise some flexibility around this piece of legislation so that we can enable New Zealanders to watch these games at these important times because it is part of the culture and heritage of our country going forward. The Justice and Electoral Committee has considered the submissions made in regard to this bill and has made some recommendations. We have come to a situation now in the bill where all games will be covered. That is important I think for all New Zealanders so that those who may not be supporting the All Blacks are also able to watch the games that they take an interest in.I would like to congratulate David Seymour on bringing this bill before the House. I think he has done a great job in doing so. This is a great bill in the sense of a member’s bill in the sense that it enables New Zealanders to actually exercise that pride and belief in their country and in their national game. They can do that when they can exercise those rights and they can do that in a way that is of benefit to themselves and their enjoyment but also that is part of being a New Zealander. It is something we should not deny in this House through the use of other legislation and other arguments which are not the intent of this bill. Thank you.