Ardern Jacinda: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1160. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACINDA ARDERN (Labour):I like my colleague Phil Goff will take a reasonably short call on this—Hon Annette King: Dream on!JACINDA ARDERN: Well according to Phil’s scale it was quite a short call on this bill not least because there is some urgency around the Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill and my colleague the Hon Phil Goff made a very good point. It is a bill that we obviously have some urgency around because we have the hosting of both the Cricket World Cup and the FIFA U-20 World Cup coming our way and we have known that for quite some time and yet we now suddenly have this urgency around this bill. It is a shame that it did not come perhaps somewhat earlier so that we could have put a little more thought into some elements of the bill.The point was well made I think by Mr Goff in respect of these provisions which are reasonably narrow and confined in terms of targeting significant match-fixing rather than a wider set of match-fixing provisions. To what extent was that done out of convenience because of lack of time rather than because it was the best way to construct the piece of legislation? I note therefore that in the bill the Government has suggested that it believes that other forms of match fixing—I guess what you could call lower-level forms although all forms of match fixing have a detrimental effect on the perception of sports and sporting fixtures in New Zealand and that is harmful regardless of scale—can be dealt with by codes of conduct and through governance from relevant governing bodies in sport for each of the sporting codes.I just want to point out though that I think it is important that whenever we delegate responsibility in that manner the oversight is important and there has been some discussion as to whether that oversight could be carried out by the Department of Internal Affairs Sport New Zealand the Ministry of Justice the Organised and Financial Crime Agency and the Serious Fraud Office. All of those bodies have some role in this bill in terms of collaborating. I think collaboration is fantastic but at the end of the day you still need a lead agency you still need accountability.I guess my concern is that if we are discharging some responsibility for lower-level monitoring of match fixing there does need to be some direction as to who is going to keep that oversight. Given that Sport New Zealand—as has been said by members on the opposite side of the House—will have a role in coordinating some of the rules that sporting bodies may adopt perhaps its having a role reporting to the Minister as to how those codes are being implemented and whether or not it thinks there might generally be a need for further primary legislation would be a useful thing. Again it is a shame that we did not have the ability to explore that in more detail and as has been pointed out in this House numerous times it is disappointing that representatives from various sporting codes were not even able to submit. It was not considered useful. I think that is disappointing and it may yet lead to us being back in this House debating this once again.My final point that I want to make is that vigilance in these areas is so important. We pride ourselves on being corruption-free on being transparent on being an open democracy. Little elements of legislation like this contribute to upholding the previously glowing perception of New Zealand in this area. But we cannot be complacent about that. We have seen what has happened in recent times specifically relating to sports and how that can make a code unravel. We have also seen what damage can be done in political fields in the judiciary if people do not have faith in those who hold high office in the way that they conduct themselves. So even in this area I would say that vigilance is important and we cannot afford to be complacent. I think this is a good step. It may not be the only step but for now Labour supports this bill and we commend it to the House.