Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): Look I am pleased to take a call on this bill. Firstly at the outset can I acknowledge the work of previous spokespeople within National on legislation improvements in terms of the racing industry. I want to acknowledge that we are supporting this bill but as our sport and recreation spokesperson I want to put a really major warning shot to the Deputy Prime Minister. The reality is that we have real concerns about the impact on national sporting codes and I'm going to outline them in my speech. I also want to address this issue of the timing. It is clear—and I have met with Ian McKelvie our spokesperson and for instance the Auckland Racing Club—that there does need to be change. I want to acknowledge the huge amount of work that the Messara report has done in terms of the racing industry. That is why we are supporting this bill through to the first reading. But we want to make a couple of things really clear. The first is: this is a shonky process. We have a very short time period for this bill and there are going to be sporting codes out there and mums and dads who care about rugby and cricket and netball that are going to be asking the question: why are we taking a short couple of weeks on a bill that may impact thousands and thousands of kids who play sport because of the impact to the national sporting codes? So as I said before I do want to make a shout-out to the racing industry and say: look National is really clear. We do support change. We do recognise the work of the Messara report. But because of the complex issues in some elements around what it means for the sporting industry what it means for communities in terms of the racing board what means in terms of that balance around gambling and obviously some of the social harm we would ideally not be in this situation where we are dealing with a rushed bill in a truncated process. So what I want to specifically go through—and I have gone back to for instance Netball New Zealand's submission to the racing review whereby they have raised several concerns. I have been on the phone to sporting organisations. Over the coming couple of weeks not only will we be hopefully getting submissions from them if people can make the time to be able to be in Parliament but I will be going out as National's sports spokesperson to raise the issue of certainty of funding for the national sporting codes. I want to address that. Firstly I think they will be very clear publicly that the process whether it's been through the Messara review or through consultation with Sport New Zealand has not been ideal and to now have this two weeks at the end of it is a major issue. The second issue is this fairness of the proposed distribution models. I have been obviously liaising with these sporting organisations and one of the core issues here is the cost to New Zealand sports who carry the production of an event not being recognised against offshore product that comes into the market at no cost of production including fair recognition of the value of their intellectual property. I am reading that from something that I have received from them. There are major issues of uncertainty by ensuring that some of these things are worked through regulation rather than having that upfront certainty that we had previously. National will be very clear. We are going to be very clear to New Zealand over the coming weeks: there must be no net loss to national sporting codes—that's rugby that's cricket that's football that's basketball—as a result of this bill. I want to ask the question: where is the Minister of sport? Where has he been while this review has been consulted on? We've had submissions from the national sporting codes. It is very important. We have been very clear that while we are supporting the first reading we have major issues when it comes to the sporting organisations and we are going to need to get that clear—and I do put a plea to the Deputy Prime Minister. It would be really helpful if we could have a very clear statement from the Deputy Prime Minister or the Minister for Sport and Recreation that no national sporting code will lose and ideally we'd get greater certainty around the funding formula.I want to make another couple of other comments in terms of racing. Again this issue does relate to what the sporting codes have said to me in terms of their submissions. They did raise a number of issues around the governance structure of the New Zealand Racing Board.Again it's this issue that we're not recognising the actual contribution of the sporting sector adequately. If you look back in 2003 and you actually look at the New Zealand Racing Board and the growing proportion of turnover that's come from sports betting it was about 10 percent in 2003 and 2004. It's now gone to 27 percent so you can imagine that if you're the sporting codes out there and there's been this absolute focus on just racing in my view—and I do want to acknowledge the Messara report—but you've seen that huge increase then quite clearly you want to have a genuine discussion about what proportion of the pie you get. Unfortunately again whether it's the representation of the New Zealand Racing Board or whether it's the issues around funding formula it is my strong view that their voice has not been heard loud enough.I do also want to recognise as well the work that Ian McKelvie has done with the racing industry. Again obviously it's on the back of the Messara report. We understand that this legislation is only dealing with a few aspects of which previous speakers have mentioned and that National in 2017 had made steps to reform the racing industry but again this issue that for 18 months—we're now in a truncated two-week select committee process because the Government has sat on these issues. I do want to acknowledge the wider work that did kick off in April 2018 when the Minister for Racing commissioned an expert John Messara to assess the state of the New Zealand racing industry.Again the issues of streamlining in terms of funding and also this issue of representation are very important. I think the future of the TAB as well whether it is that balance in terms of reducing social harm for gambling but also making sure that we have funds get where they need to in terms of the community—and no better organisations have an understanding of how that money should be spent than our national sporting codes so their ability to be at the table instead of being cut out of these discussions is incredibly important in the future.I want to mention a couple of other things about the real issues of funding in sport and I'm looking at Louisa Wall right now because I think she does understand some of these issues. We've currently got a situation in New Zealand where we're talking a lot about women in sport. Now the questions for the Government are: if we have uncertainty around the national sporting codes we can have all of the committees that we want around women in sport but if rugby cricket netball football and basketball can't get that certainty of funding then we will literally have less kids playing sport. I don't understand why in an 18-month period when I am looking at Netball New Zealand's submission to the Messara review Grant Robertson and other colleagues couldn't have taken the head of Netball New Zealand's submission seriously and come out with some policy that would give greater certainty. It is not acceptable and over the coming weeks parents the national sporting codes and other people involved in the industry will need to get absolute clarity and certainty that no national sporting organisations will lose as a result of this.Look finally I just want to make a general comment in terms of racing because I have talked obviously quite a bit about sport. I do acknowledge that David Bennett learned colleague but also Ian McKelvie have been doing a lot of work with the industry. We both understand the importance of understanding New Zealand's role around racing and innovation actually. There's a huge amount of work that is going on and I found when I met with the Auckland Racing Club in particular to be briefed around the innovation in terms of the industry that it is pretty massive and I think we need to acknowledge that.I also want to acknowledge that for many small-town communities—and excuse the pun but racing is actually the lifeblood of those towns. Again for those people listening particularly the racing industry and the sporting industry look it's been a bit of a line-ball call around this bill because we do understand the importance of the racing industry and we didn't want to send a message that we weren't supporting them. But this issue of the fortnight truncated process after 18 months of sitting on the Government's hand and this issue of uncertainty for the national sporting organisations around funding—I am going to be fighting incredibly hard over the next fortnight to get basic clarity from the Deputy Prime Minister to the Minister of Sport and Recreation that no national sporting codes will lose because that matters. We're a nation of sportspeople and we deserve to have that clarity.