Roy Heather: Responsible Gambling Bill — Second Reading 
Roy Heather: Responsible Gambling Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7860] 
HEATHER ROY (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of ACT New Zealand to oppose this bill. I found the previous speaker’s speech very interesting. He described the bill as a good balance. I notice that the first reading was on 26 February 2002 which is quite some time ago—in fact well before I came to this House—and the fact we are only now having the second reading debate would indicate I think that there are some fundamental difficulties with this bill. We heard from the National member that the bill has been passed from Cabinet member to Cabinet member and that does not seem to have done much good. The previous speaker the Hon Damien O’Connor thanked United Future members. He will have to thank them a lot more because it would seem that having not given the bill their unconditional support they still have great concerns with it. He also thanked the Greens which is quite surprising. I do not think he realises that the Greens are proposing to oppose this bill too. But anyway he will find that out in due course. 
This bill has been introduced by an authoritarian Government that does not trust the citizens of this country. It wants to control the activities undertaken by New Zealanders especially in areas where it thinks that people might be enjoying themselves or having some fun. The bill is aimed at giving far too much power to the State. ACT believes that New Zealanders should be free to spend their money as they choose. We know that a small number of people do have difficulty with gambling addiction but the majority of New Zealanders should not be put at a disadvantage as a result of a small few and I will come to how those people should be treated soon. This bill proposes to create a whole new structure of unaccountable bureaucrats in the Department of Internal Affairs. The current system is by no means perfect but we believe that it is infinitely superior to what is proposed. 
At the moment the Casino Control Authority is responsible for licensing and regulations and underneath it sits the Department of Internal Affairs. The proposed structure has a gaming commission at the top and we have heard from the National member who knows a thing or two about gaming that that is a good thing. However it has no teeth very few staff—and what will it achieve? Also this gaming commission will be controlled by the Department of Internal Affairs and the Minister and ACT is certainly opposed to that. Any commission must be independent. There must be a reasonable amount of distance between the gaming commission and the Department of Internal Affairs. The commission would have a limited licensing function and it would deal with appeals. Underneath the commission is a huge horizontal layer of bureaucracy—the Department of Internal Affairs responsible for everything involved with gaming; from gaming policy through to enforcement licensing regulation and the servicing of the gaming commission and the servicing of the Lottery Grants Board. This structure is a great cause for worry. It will result in a lack of transparency and like so many other Government departments that we have seen of late a lack of accountability. 
The distribution of funds from gaming machines is one of the major problems arising from the bill and one that has had a lot of time devoted to it in the speeches we have heard so far. ACT is in favour of the status quo. The current system provides good checks and balances that ensure distribution is transparent and fair. That is very important and it is paramount when we talk about money that is being distributed to the community. Trusts and charities are accountable to the department and also to the public. The State either in the form of central government or local government should not have a role in distributing these funds we believe. The temptation is always to grab these extra funds in the form of taxation and there is certainly plenty of evidence of this Labour Government doing that to date. We have had 16 new levies or taxes since Labour has come to power and here is the opportunity for this to happen yet again. Charitable trusts by and large distribute money efficiently and fairly and this is the most important point of all: pub charities and the other organisations that are responsible for distributing these funds know their communities best. They certainly know them much better than the bureaucrats in Wellington ever will. 
The Minister George Hawkins said recently that the Government is determined to control the growth of gambling minimise the harm it causes involve New Zealanders in decision making about gambling and ensure that gaming profits benefit the community. He has said that the Responsible Gambling Bill aims to achieve those objectives. Well I think he is reading a different bill from the one I was reading. Certainly the bill I was reading did not talk about that. But I wonder whether his motivation comes from looking out of his own electorate office in Manurewa. I paid a visit to Manurewa recently and parked across the road from George Hawkins’ electorate office. Do members know how many gaming outlets there are within a 1.5 kilometre radius of his office? There are 18. I visited at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and had a wander around. 
Hon George Hawkins 
: How much did you spend? 
HEATHER ROY 
: I did not spend anything because I value my money. We wandered around had a look and virtually none of the machines were free. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon they were virtually all full. Also interestingly two more gaming outlets were being built or furnished. They were being set up. There was some urgency for this because they thought the bill was about to have its second reading. It is some time down the track now and we know about the fundamental problems that exist but they thought they had to get their outlets outfitted very quickly so that they could install 18 machines as opposed to nine. [ 
Interruption 
] It is obvious that the Minister is worried about his own electorate and the problems that exist there. 
Most of us have had letters—I certainly have—from small sporting groups cultural groups soccer clubs tennis clubs and the like. They are worried about their financial viability with this bill going through. They rely heavily on the proceeds they receive from the funds that are distributed locally. It is interesting to look at the smaller sporting clubs such as soccer clubs and tennis clubs. We are constantly told by this Government that there is an obesity epidemic and a diabetes epidemic particularly among children in this country. Children are not exercising enough. We all know this—but what is this Government doing? It is now going to deprive the small sporting clubs that provide sporting opportunities and exercise for our children on Saturday mornings and other days by curtailing the funding available to them through gaming machines. 
I have also had a lot of correspondence from groups like the Returned Services Association. I have a very interesting letter from the Mount Maunganui branch of the association. It sums up beautifully the concerns that many such organisations have. It is a larger Returned Services Association one of the largest in the country I believe with a membership in excess of 5000. The letter says: “We and all other clubs have always acted responsibly in our gaming-machine operation.” They claim to be meticulous in that regard and they say they have been regularly audited by the Department of Internal Affairs and have received a clean report on every occasion and even praise for their systems. They go on to say that their methods have been used by the department as an example for other clubs and they point out that gaming revenue is an essential component of income for their club and for others that they know of. They also provide welfare assistance to their members as a result of the funding they receive from gaming machines thus relieving the burden that would otherwise fall on local authorities or on the Government. 
Of real concern about the proposed legislation are the compliance costs and of course there are many. There is the threat of increased duty. The Minister refuses to rule out in answers to questions I have asked him the possibility that the duty may go up from 20 to 25 percent. Also there is talk of electronic monitoring which is going to cost the clubs dearly. The changing of banknote acceptors is also a concern to them. Anybody who thinks that allowing the machines to take less money will make any difference at all is just not living in this world. People will just change their money and have smaller notes which they will continue to use in exactly the same way. At the moment the Department of Internal Affairs has adequate powers to discipline the bad boys or the cowboys which the Returned Services Association explained to me. But this is only a minority of those operators and by and large the system that operates at the moment does provide transparency. 
I would like to wrap up by talking about problem gambling. It is interesting that the first person who even dared to mention the Ministry of Health and the changeover from the current problem gambling committee to the Ministry of Health being responsible was the last speaker. Nobody else has mentioned it because we all know what a terrible job it is going to make of it. The problem gambling committee currently responsible for problem gambling has representatives from the industry and also from groups that are responsible for treating those with addiction. There is some tension between the two but it works well.