SpeechLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's my pleasure to take a call on this second reading and as you know this side of the House is supporting this bill. The reform of the racing industry has been a long time coming but I would say that unless the Transport and Infrastructure Committee despite what the previous member Kris Faafoi has just said hadn't done its work this side of the House wouldn't be supporting this bill because there were massive errors in it as it was first reported back.It's important that I sort of put a bit of context on my own perception of this bill because I have been an avid supporter of the racecourse in Hastings and what was called the Hawke's Bay Jockey Club and subsequently has changed to Hawkes Bay Racing. I have attended many of their events and I have supported them and had many meetings including in my previous role and I have watched over years as they have struggled. They have sold land off. They have had difficult years. They now have a grandstand and many of you who have been there will know it's older—probably has earthquake-strengthening issues that will have to be addressed. Their fundamental modus operandi into the future is going to be very difficult. Despite that the Spring Carnival as it's known in Hawke's Bay is one of the events on the racing calendar of New Zealand.We're supported by two smaller clubs still in Hawke's Bay. One is in Mr McAnulty's sort of area that he looks after as a list MP in Central Hawke's Bay: that's a small racetrack there. Another one is the Napier electorate looked after by the Hon Stuart Nash in Wairoa. Both of those clubs are unlikely to survive in the current arrangement or even to the future because simply put there are not enough people supporting the industry there's not enough money in it and things need to change. I've had conversations with the presidents of those various clubs about that some of those have been quite unpalatable—but they are the reality. I acknowledge in the Hawke's Bay case president Eliot Cooper for the work that he's done in guiding us through the changes that are needed.In Hawke's Bay and the Hastings racing centre I look at a beautiful piece of land in the middle of town all zoned residential with an older set of grandstands on it but for the Spring Carnival it becomes a hub of activity where people love to go. But it cannot support itself under the current arrangement.I also say that this is a big industry. We're not just talking about the tracks and the odd race but the owners the breeders the trainers and the jockeys. Simply put: if we don't make these reforms it's my view that there will not be an industry in New Zealand in 10 years' time.I disagree with the previous speaker Kris Faafoi who said that previous Governments haven't looked at this or done things about it. The Hon David Bennett got very close to bringing legislation before this House but the election came along and he didn't get it through. So now we are getting to it.I have talked to and met—some quite bruising encounters with members of the industry about what needs to happen. But fundamentally if we don't do this this whole industry will collapse in 10 years and it has a massive future for New Zealand if it's sorted out.I also want to acknowledge the volunteers that are involved and some of this is difficult for them. So they are linked to a small club whether that's in Central Hawke's Bay in Waitakaruru or in Wairoa—Kieran McAnulty: Great clubs.LAWRENCE YULE: They're great clubs and they have a community focus and people work for nothing for years to keep them going; they put sheep on them to keep the grass down they mow the lawns they run all sorts of things from them. Same in Hastings; it's a bit more professional they have a small secretariat of staff but none the less a whole lot of volunteers on race day front up. So this is really important to them and their industry.I do want to congratulate the select committee despite being somewhat belittled by members on the other side about their role because we have now arranged a place where most members of this House have a level of comfort particularly around what will happen to the courses. That was a stumbling block; I think up until that point we had big issues. I also want to thank John Messara for what he did in bringing his expertise from Australia to New Zealand. My understanding—and I'll stand corrected—is that he didn't get paid to do this; he volunteered to help New Zealand racing through its issues. I think we owe him a great deal of gratitude. I read his report and to be clear I couldn't find too many things wrong with it; what I did find was that when the Government tried to interpret his report and bring it into first reading it was incredibly different.I also want to say that even in my home town of Hastings 10 years ago we fundamentally looked at a review of Hawke's Bay racing and the Hawke's Bay A&P Showgrounds to relocate them both at the showgrounds in a $30 million facility. We would redevelop the land where the Hastings Racecourse is currently on for houses and that was a way at that time of keeping Hawke's Bay racing solvent. Now we couldn't get agreement and there wasn't enough money but I point that out today because these challenges that the industry faces are not new; they've gone on for a long time. The thing that I found interesting in that particular series of negotiations was that we had very similar people that were running Hawkes Bay Racing as were running the Hawke's Bay A&P Society—good hard-working Kiwis that cared about their role their facilities but they lacked the money clearly to make it all work.So in terms of the real nuts and bolts of the bill the TAB and how it works has been amended to ensure that all racing codes and sport bodies have the ability to make specific nominations based on merit to sit on the board. Fundamentally that means that everybody can be represented or has a chance of being represented. Before that I even had people come to me from sporting codes who were very uncertain and concerned that the racing industry would dominate the TAB they would dominate the flow of money they would dominate how the money was spent and to the detriment of other sporting codes—bearing in mind that many types of sports are now subject to some type of gambling on them. So this has been changed and I think that's for the better.I agree with Mr Bayly who knows more about corporate law and how things work than I do about the fact that intellectual property should remain with the codes rather than being transferred to the TAB. That has been heavily supported by the industry and the select committee has arrived at that and that's currently in the bill.John Messara recommended a new board called Racing New Zealand to undertake a number of roles including setting race meeting dates and to act as a bridge between the TAB and the codes. At this point I want to talk about that tension and I see it in Wairoa particularly—it's probably in Central Hawke's Bay although I haven't heard as much about it. In Wairoa they have a wonderful race meeting—certainly once a year; sometimes twice a year—but the problem is that it's a beautiful community outing but it doesn't make any money. The stakes aren't high enough; there aren't enough races. The TAB fundamentally has decided that they won't continue to keep being present on course and to televise the racing. Now what that means is that eventually if the TAB keeps that going then Wairoa will face a difficult future. So Racing New Zealand as a new entity has an ability to work between TAB and the codes to manage fairness and equity.In closing in the last minute or so the surplus of racetracks—that has been a very contentious issue. So if you sit in my own electorate my racetrack is fine. It will be fine and it will benefit from what this bill is trying to do. But if you go to Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay then their future is less clear. The ability as was previously put in in the first reading to mean that effectively Racing New Zealand could hoover these courses up and sell them and do whatever they wanted with them was widely opposed—and so it should have been. But now we have new clauses which allow the racing club if it doesn't think it can make a go of it to have an ability to vest the proceeds back to the code but if there are grounds for significant community interest then effectively you can appoint an independent reviewer that can independently review everything and make a recommendation back to the Minister. That is the great work that the select committee did. I give all members on both sides credit for coming up with that solution—because without that I wouldn't be able to stand here and support this bill as I do. Thank you.