Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. First of all I want to congratulate my colleague Ian McKelvie. Not only has he had a stunning run of success in ballots but he also has a real passion for the racing industry. This bill is a practical thing that he can actually do to help racing in New Zealand. So well done Ian. Ian McKelvie has been a strong member for Rangitīkei for a number of years now and he obviously—Tama Potaka: Second-best place to grow up.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Second-best" Tama says. But your contribution to that electorate and also the racing industry is very much welcomed and appreciated and acknowledged here today. So well done Ian.This bill probably doesn't even need to come to Parliament. We shouldn't be having to debate these things in reality. There are some things in life that just could carry on and if we put too many regulations on in our community we get to the stage where we have to legislate to do something that is part of New Zealand's history and culture. The traditional Boxing Day races or small event races that happen throughout the country are there for enjoyment for people to come along for communities to come together for families to come together and just enjoy time together—and often they're in a holiday sort of mode and having a drink is part of that and shouldn't be a problem in our society. We have made that so difficult.We have basically said that you can't do that and taken that enjoyment out of people's lives. There's no real reason we should have gone that far down the track. The reality is that these things should have been able to happen anyway. I just am a bit disappointed that New Zealand has got to this stage where we have to pass legislation like this to actually enable New Zealanders to have some fun effectively and to enjoy themselves. So it gets to this point where we have to do this. Well done the honourable Ian McKelvie for working that out and getting that through. But the point is: do we really need to get to a stage in our country where we have to pass bills like this so that people can just live a normal life?Next up racing is part of the fabric of New Zealand and it has really had some tough times in recent years. We had the Minister for Racing in front of the Governance and Administration Committee in fact this morning—the same committee—and he talked about the racing arrangements that had come into place with the Entain deal what they're doing around betting what they're doing around the transformation of the TAB and the role it's going to play in the future. So there's a lot of attention in the racing industry around what is happening in Parliament these days because they are an industry that's struggling TAB is struggling and the Government has an effective role in setting legislation that dictates a lot of their future. So they are taking a very active interest now as they have done in the past as well around what is happening in this room because it can actually have a huge influence on the future ambitions of the industry and where it wants to go.The industry itself doesn't want to lose events like this bill deals with. It doesn't want to lose some of that community feel from race meetings that people might attend on a one-off basis or on a very basis in the community. That's part of the excitement of the industry and it's also part of the encouragement of people to continue to pursue the industry at other levels as well.So when we look at what is happening in racing at the moment it's really important to take the perspective that this is part of the equation and it's actually something that if we constrain the industry at all different parts of the equation you can actually lose an industry very quickly. To take away that enjoyment the fun the ability to run these kind of meetings to have people go along to have horses go along to have communities engaged can really be detrimental long term for a community."