McClay Todd: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1722. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 It gives me pleasure to rise and speak on this bill the Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill. Can I say to the mover of this bill Mr Flavell that this is a very good piece of legislation. I want to commend him for the hard work he has put into drawing it up and for the diligence he has shown over more than a year since it came out of the ballot in working this through and getting it on the Table for us here today to consider. Can I say to the last speaker that that was one of the worst speeches I have heard in this House. Mr Prasad can I say to you that— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: It was Ruth Dyson wasn’t it? 
TODD McCLAY 
: It was Mrs Dyson? Oh they sounded the same from where I was sitting. Can I say though as we come to what is a very important piece of legislation that I know Mr Flavell has worked very hard in our community. I say “our community” because we are elected members of Parliament from an area of the Bay of Plenty where our electorates overlap—his Waiariki and mine Rotorua. Over the last couple of years as elected MPs the only two elected constituent MPs in that part of the Bay of Plenty I know that he has worked very hard in terms of consulting with his community as I have.  
Gambling can do great harm in our communities—in fact in New Zealand. At the same time there are people who gamble for enjoyment and for whom it does no harm at all. I believe that Mr Flavell’s piece of legislation focuses on creating rules for people in a local environment and giving local authorities some tools some powers to decide for themselves to a greater degree what types of rules they would like what sorts of controls they would like in the area of their competence.  
I would say to him that last year I consulted fairly widely by writing to people and through advertising and asking constituents from the Rotorua electorate—from Kawerau from Murupara from the Te Puke area—to tell me what they thought about this. The vast majority of people who responded to the survey and there were some thousands were in favour of greater control around the pokie machines that are used. So I support him in his endeavours and in his legislation.  
Mr Flavell raised the issue of Kawerau a great little town that he and I share as members of Parliament. Can I say that Kawerau as with many small parts of New Zealand faces some challenges but it is a community of people who care about themselves and others. But in Kawerau there are a number of pokie machines. [ 
Interruption 
] I got a lot more support in Kawerau than you did Mr Prasad but there would be a reason for that and that is because you have yet to win an election. Good luck in the future; I think you cannot.  
But anyway let me continue. What I would say about Kawerau is that I have had ongoing discussions with the mayor there who said that they are not necessarily against pokie machines. They do believe they can do some harm but the Mayor of Kawerau and his councillors would like greater control themselves. More than that he said there are significant amounts of money that go through the machines in Kawerau and there is some money that stays in the community.  
A little while ago some of the proceeds were used to fix up and rebuild the BMX track because one of New Zealand’s best BMX riders Sarah Walker comes from Kawerau. It is a great thing and an excellent thing for the community. Actually that would not have been done without the funding that comes back from some of these pokie trusts. But the Mayor of Kawerau Mr Campbell has said to me that he believes that if pokies are to stay there more of that money should be spent in that community. I agree with him on that and this piece of legislation at least starts a debate around what should happen there.  
Can I say that Rotorua although it is a fantastic place to visit—and there is not a single member of this House who would disagree with me—has another name. It is occasionally called “Roto-Vegas” because some years ago it was said that there were lot of pokie machines there. Actually if you have visited Vegas in America you will know that gambling is a small part of it. It is because you can have so much fun there. And that is what is great about Rotorua—so much fun. But we do have pokie machines there and there is an ongoing wide debate about this. I want to make one— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member but the time has come for me to leave the Chair. 
Debate interrupted.