Tisch Lindsay: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Gambling Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8515] 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
: 
 I want to take a brief call on schedule 4 which relates to infringement offences. Schedule 4A states that an infringement under section 11 “Advertising overseas gambling prohibited” attracts a fee of $5000. If I go back to clause 11 of the bill I see that subclause (3) states: “A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $10000.” Schedule 4A sets a fee of $5000 for an infringement offence but the body of the bill states $10000. 
I will not go through them all but another section of the schedule provides that certain information must be displayed to customers at a casino venue which relates to clause 151. The fine there is $2500 but clause 151(3) states: “The holder of a casino licence who fails to comply with this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5000.” I do not know why there is a difference between schedule 4A and what is in the body of the bill but there may well be an explanation for it. If the Minister does not know he might be able to ask his officials why there is a difference in the fee structure as I have outlined it. I believe that members need to have that explained when we go through the voting procedure. 
Technical amendments come through this bill in the schedules and in particular I draw the Committee’s attention to schedule 5 which relates to amendments to the Racing Act. It is exciting that the racing industry and the TAB will now have the opportunity to have gaming machines and to be able to keep the proceeds from those gaming machines. I have a particular interest in racing—I come from Matamata in the Waikato the heart of racing. That is what the town and the area is known for and I know that people in that area will welcome the opportunity to be part of this and to be able to have their own machines. I am sure though that small racing clubs will not put machines in because they meet only two or three times a year but they will have the opportunity to have machines—as with the TRAC group which includes Matamata Rotorua and Bay of Plenty racing clubs. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Don’t know about Paeroa. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: No Paeroa is not in it but those three racing clubs in particular have had access to gaming money for stakes. I was talking to the treasurer of the Matamata Racing Club on Monday and he said it is worth about $90000 a year to them to be able to have access to gaming-machine money for their operations and stakes. This year they are budgeting for a $30000 loss. If they are not able to access funds then a provincial racing club is looking at a huge $120000 loss. The Matamata Racing Club is probably one of the more affluent racing clubs in the country. It is well run it has a very good racecourse it has a very good reputation and it is the home of New Zealand’s top jockeys. We support schedule 5 “Amendments to Racing Act 1971” which allows that provision to take place. 
We are not comfortable—as my colleague Judith Collins mentioned—with some of the other schedules. I will not go into those in detail as we canvassed them during the Committee stage of this debate. Suffice to say that we will be voting against the schedules as we will be voting against the bill.