Lee Melissa: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5224. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): I rise to take the first call from the Government benches opposing this bill by the list member from New Zealand First Tracey Martin. I would like to give her a piece of advice first of all to maybe say that she should have protested perhaps that she was not going to take being voted down from her deputy’s role. She should have stood up but I am not so sure whether that was actually heard in her caucus.This is a bill that would effectively wreck and ruin all of the Government’s amazing efforts to develop public-private partnerships in Auckland and other parts of the country that are vital to the Government’s Business Growth Agenda to support hard-working families and develop a strong economy for our nation.This bill the New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill is nothing more than an attempt by the member for New Zealand First on that side of the House to put a stopper—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I just ask the member to resume her seat. I know that at the beginning of the member’s speech she did invite some response and she got that response. I think now we will have a bit more decorum and a slightly better tone of interjection thank you Mr Mark.MELISSA LEE: As I was saying this bill is nothing more than an attempt by the member for New Zealand First on that side of the House to put a stopper on the excellence that will come out of understanding new enterprise new opportunity and the growth of modern facilities that can cater to international conferences without the stress currently on the wider hospitality and event management system.I would like to quote my colleague the Hon Bill English back when the original legislation was read in 2013 when he said: “This is a bill that will provide jobs and better incomes for New Zealanders.” That is a fantastic thing—providing jobs for New Zealanders. Paraphrasing my colleagues we know that there are at least 1000 people employed in the construction process. The convention centre when open will employ 800 people servicing all those who go there when it is up and running.This International Convention Centre which the National Government has worked on with Skycity on will be a great opportunity. Quite simply the New Zealand International Convention Centre will cater to nearly 3500 international conference delegates at any one time. If members in this House have been overseas to an international conference where there are thousands of delegates who are actually catered to and have come back to New Zealand thinking that we do not have one of those—we do actually feel a little bit envious. This is going some way to addressing that need that this country has.The convention centre is being built to a state-of-the-art design and it will have state-of-the-art internal facilities for cost by a private provider that is able to fund the project through Government support in a non-monetary fashion. This is the best sort of deal. This is the sort of contract we should see more of. The Government is not actually spending a cent on this. This convention centre will increase GDP a great result for a zero-dollar investment by the Government. It will increase GDP by $49 million.When we talk about the convention centre we are talking jobs. We are talking growth. We are talking about the revitalisation of the City Rail Link which I know some members in this House often talk about—public transport. We are talking about our Business Growth Agenda the plan to get a strong economic growth programme in place that even the Labour Party cannot possibly fault.To repeal the Act is to shout aloud that we do not want those visitors from overseas to New Zealand that we do not want stable enterprise and that we do not want those businesses willing to take the risk of coming to the most remote OCED nation to do business and trade. We are basically turning away people who are wanting to come to New Zealand to spend money in New Zealand.This bill talks about protecting New Zealanders from financial liability and I am a little bit baffled as to what liability this bill is talking about as under the current deal actually we have none. The member’s bill however creates a huge liability and it will hurl our Government into debt through legal negotiations breach of contracts and general bad faith actually on behalf of Parliament. The Government as the taxpayers’ representative at large would be liable and all of New Zealand would lose on that value that the convention centre would offer by trading the non-monetary concessions that were negotiated in favour of Crown liability for the full debt.We are managing the economy. We do not need $400 million of debt as much as that member on that side might actually want it. This agreement will put New Zealand on the map as a world-class destination to hold conferences. At the moment we do not have one as such. Our capacity to host business tourism—let us actually get New Zealand talking on the world stage in all fields. We need to get commercial and societal business into New Zealand and this convention centre will create a means to do so. We are building a competitive economy. We are getting growth—over 150000 jobs under the National Government. This project is just one part of that agenda but it like all parts is important to the growth of the economy. [Interruption]Members have actually sort of pointed out that we are talking about a serious issue here: we are talking about problem gamblers too. There are problem gamblers in our community. We do know that and this Government has asked Skycity to make a commitment to the people of New Zealand to actually ensure that it is addressing and implementing the recommendations that we have requested here in this House to ensure that those who are problem gamblers can get the help that they need without strife or further concern.Gambling is a nationwide concern. It is an issue that many people are concerned about particularly in the ethnic communities because there are quite a few ethnic community people who are in fact going to the casinos and have actually been identified as problem gamblers. One of the reasons why people actually become gamblers and get addicted to gambling is often they find that in the casinos they are treated like part of the community when on the outside they perhaps feel like an outcast—a feeling not helped by the Opposition’s lack of charity and kindness to ethnic communities like the Labour Party showed in recent days.This Government has ensured that to deter problem gambling and money-laundering Skycity as part of its responsibility to the people of New Zealand must take practical steps to address issues of problem gambling. This will include a predictive modelling tool that analyses data to identify players at risk of problem gambling; a voluntary pre-commitment system where players can elect to restrict the amount of time that they play or the amount that they spend; and doubling the number of host responsibility specialists to deliver 24-hour 7 day-a-week coverage—people actually there to make sure that those using the services of Skycity can feel safe and that someone is there to support their decision if they choose that they have had enough.So problem gambling will be an ongoing issue for communities. It is an addiction. No number of machines pokies or tables will be too few or too many for the problem gamblers to deal with. The measures are in place to support recovery and help New Zealanders in those situations where they may be in trouble. I say that because Skycity is not the only gambling venue. Gambling is in fact a nationwide issue and concern. It is not just one company’s issue that we should be talking about.Simply put this bill by the New Zealand First member and the recommendation to abolish these innovative public-private partnerships is nothing more than just a knee-jerk reaction to a company with diversified interests wanting to move into areas where New Zealand as a whole can actually benefit that our nation can benefit from. I expect we will hear more about lots of conferences being booked in New Zealand as a result of that—maybe even within New Zealand. Maybe people living in the South Island might possibly like to come up to Auckland to book a convention. Let us not step back into the past and put New Zealand into debt. Let us get New Zealand on the right path and ensure we have a par excellence convention centre in the nation’s largest city.