Peachey Allan: Major Events Management Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeachey Allan: Major Events Management Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 22 August 2007. Volume:641;Page:11379. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki): I appreciate having the opportunity to speak also to Part 2 and I just note with a little irony that most of what the representatives of the Green Party and New Zealand First have been talking about is probably more relevant to Part 2 than it was to Part 1.I will take the opportunity to share with Mr Mark his love of American history. Twice in this debate he has mentioned Justice Thurgood Marshall. I think that if he checks his history he will find that Justice Marshall although appointed to the Supreme Court by Lyndon Johnson in I think 1965 never actually reached the top echelons of the Supreme Court. He was simply an associate and never a Chief Justice. It pays to get one’s history right.Previous speakers have traversed a range of views and interpretations of this legislation and I wonder what those very fine people at the New Zealand Rugby Union and their business interests must be thinking. Here we are with a fair degree of unanimity in the Committee debating very very important legislation that will lay out the environment for New Zealand to host the Rugby World Cup 2011 very very well. It is important we do it well because this sort of activity will be more and more important to our future not only in hosting the event itself and getting that right but also in enjoying the downstream advantages that come from that with New Zealand being seen as a destination for doing business tourism and that sort of thing. Yet here members are finding themselves almost degenerating into irrelevancies about the way that people might conduct themselves.I want to make one thing very clear to the Committee: New Zealanders are sick and tired of having their enjoyment of major events spoilt by one or two self-important indulgent people who think that making an exhibition of themselves is far more important than the game that is under way. I think that many New Zealanders feel a sense of embarrassment that when we are on the world stage and when so many people are working so hard to make the event go off well attention is distracted by some clowns who seem to think they are free to make fools of themselves and forget the consequences.Hon Member: They’re normally drunk.ALLAN PEACHEY: They are normally drunk. We do not want that; New Zealand wants to move forward beyond that. New Zealand wants to see itself now as a seriousdestination for world-class major events. A lot of things go with that and part of it is ensuring that the standard of behaviour in the crowd is up to scratch.I also want to put on record my very very strong support for the anti-scalping provisions. Already now in New Zealand when big major sports events are held it is too hard for ordinary New Zealanders—the men and women who are out on the paddock on a Saturday coaching children—to get tickets to the big events. As I said I think in speaking to the introduction—Hon Trevor Mallard: No trouble getting tickets for North Harbour.ALLAN PEACHEY: Well as I have said a couple of times before in this debate I am the principal who hired a hospitality box at North Harbour Stadium so that teachers the people who were fronting up week after week had an opportunity to experience what people who were often making no positive contribution to sport at all were experiencing week after week. I note the irony that the Minister behind this bill had some strong views on my actions at that time. Hopefully with a little time having passed he might have reflected on that matter.It is really important that we protect—Ron Mark: Who used it the most?ALLAN PEACHEY: Well the music teachers actually had it the day we got caught I say to Mr Mark but that is another story.It is not right that ordinary New Zealanders who front up on Saturday after Saturday on a Thursday night or whenever it is to coach teams to play in teams or to support teams do not have a fair crack at a reasonable price at seeing the really big games. The reality is of course that there will always be a limited number of tickets when a ground is going to be sold out and I accept that and fully understand it. But I am anxious to ensure that ordinary New Zealanders who have a love of sport get a fair crack.The last comment I want to make at this stage in speaking to Part 2 is just to reinforce the importance of the high test being put in place in terms of the declaration of a major event. If the Committee takes a moment to look at that test it will become apparent just how important this legislation is to us and just how important these major events are. There has to be significant international participation and a significant number of international spectators. I am bound to say that although I saw the Minister shake his head I find it very hard to see the New Zealand soccer team playing England or our team as being in that category. Perhaps if Manchester United were to play England in New Zealand it might be a different matter. The event has significantly—Hon Trevor Mallard: Part of a tour. Comes from Australia—you know 30000 Poms watching. That would be a major event.ALLAN PEACHEY: Ha ha; yes they will be mostly Poms. The event must significantly raise New Zealand’s international profile and associated with it have an appropriate level of professional management and professional coordination. It must attract significant sponsorship and international media coverage. That is probably the significant test: is the event that is to be held in New Zealand big enough to attract international media coverage and international sponsorship? It is a pretty rigorous test. There also have to be substantial sporting cultural social economic or other benefits to New Zealand and to New Zealanders.Really this bill marks the movement into a new era of events being hosted by New Zealand. This is not the Rugby World Cup of 1987 however much those of us who experienced that look back at it with huge pleasure and satisfaction. We are not talking about an equivalent event any longer; we are talking about what I understand to be the third most significant sporting event in the world—the third. It is huge. Its possibilities for New Zealand are huge. It is vital that we get it right and it is good to see that thetwo major parties are able to come together work together through the select committee process and put in place the framework that will ensure we get it right.