Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media): Mr Assistant Speaker thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the first reading of the Racing Reform Bill. If anything is needed in the racing sector it is certainly reform and it's well overdue so can I congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister for getting this bill to the House. My understanding of the sector as a previous spokesperson in Opposition is that they will be very ecstatic about the fact that this piece of legislation has arrived in the House that it is comprehensive in the nature of the many challenges that racing the totalisator and also that the sporting codes that are encompassed within this bill face at the moment. There's been some interesting and creative historiography about the challenges and some of the solutions that were proffered up by the previous Government. I couldn't have put it better than the previous speaker Ian McKelvie himself that the previous Government introduced the bill in the dying days of the last Government which is to show the priority that they gave to this industry. I think it's also notable that they're also being a little bit sticks-in-the-mud about some of the details of this bill that will be pointed towards regulation because one of the challenges that the sector faces is actually being nimble. The ability to have some of these changes that are proposed in the bill within regulations will help that sector which has historically found it very hard to change its ways to be nimble in a market that is always changing. So can I congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister for getting this bill to the House. It's taken 18 months and I guess when you look at the challenges that have been facing the industry and the sector for some time and the lack of action by the previous Government I think that the sector will be very happy with the speed and the rate of knots at which this has been brought to the House and the strong leadership that the Deputy Prime Minister has brought to it. Some of the issues that the sector faces—if we're looking at racing clubs themselves—is some of the aging infrastructure within the club itself and struggles and challenges within prize money for races. That then has a flow-on effect towards breeding and races themselves and our ability to support an export market that is there. Mr McKelvie also pointed towards some of the challenges that were contained in the bill in 2017 which we are dealing with here in a pragmatic way to ensure that revenue is gained from some of those bookies overseas who are using races and sports based here in New Zealand to take bets on. The practice in the past was that no revenue has come to New Zealand as a result of those races and sports events being bet on by overseas punters. That will change in this piece of legislation. Also an issue that has challenged the TAB and the Racing Industry Board for some time is the increased amount of betting that is happening by New Zealanders on offshore platforms for races and sports that are happening offshore and that revenue has been lost to New Zealand. So an attempt within this bill to make sure a portion of that revenue stays in New Zealand supports the New Zealand racing industry and supports New Zealand sports codes I think is extremely welcome.Another thing that I think some of the members across the House have reacted to was the TAB levy. That will be reduced and I understand that over the three years it will mean that something close to $14 million will be able to be injected back into the sector. Now as I said some of those racing clubs that have been struggling for prize money to promote themselves and to be able to get high-quality horses into fields into their races will welcome that reinvestment into their clubs and into the sector in general. But I think importantly as the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out there are social issues that we need to address within that as well and a portion of that levy funding that will be going back into the sector will be sectioned aside to deal with some of the problem gambling issues.So I think this is a great piece of legislation. It's well overdue and I think as you've seen from the Deputy Prime Minister there is some urgency to this because the sector has wanted action for some time. Hon Dr Nick Smith: You've been blocking it.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: So I'm going to be very interested—what's the problem with that Mr Smith?Hon Dr Nick Smith: You've been sitting on a bill for 18 months.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: That's right—18 months compared to nine years. I was baiting Mr Smith to say that because the previous Government sat on it for nine years. It took us 18 months because by the time we got into office issues weren't dealt with so much that we needed to have another review because things had progressed so far down the track. We've got a comprehensive review by Mr Messara and a comprehensive piece of legislation. So I'm going to be very interested to hear some of the contributions from the other side of the House who introduced—again to the point that Mr Smith made—a bill in the dying hours of the last Parliament and furiously tried to get the Opposition to try to help but they couldn't even prioritise it within their own Order Paper. So that shows the lack of commitment from the other side of the House and the good work that has been done in the short period of time on this side of the House to make sure that our racing codes and our sporting codes will be futureproofed to make sure that they get the revenue that they need to survive and prosper. I support this piece of legislation.