Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Look the ACT Party will support Mr McKelvie's proposal. We believe that people attending race meetings in their communities should have the right to responsibly drink with friends with family with club members. And that's because the ACT Party trusts New Zealanders; we believe in personal responsibility; we believe that Kiwis should be trusted to take a beer a bottle of wine a cider even—if it was a race meeting in West Auckland—a four-pack of Woodstock (Woodies) and drink that out of the back of the ute while they wait for the horse race to start.Now apart from the Avondale Racecourse which is more than likely to end up becoming a property development than seeing another horse race any time soon—I'm not sure where in West Auckland that's likely to happen. But when we're thinking about it means to live in a small community to not have all of those country pubs all of those cosmopolitan clubs that we used to have in New Zealand because as New Zealanders are drinking much much less than they used to—both in volume and in concentration—the sale of alcohol through retail premises has actually declined significantly in the past few decades.Now when I was at university it was common for a beer tanker to be driven onto the university campus and for all the students to grab a milkshake cup which had a giraffe on the side of it and that said The longest drink in town" and to drink as many of those cups as they could until they drank the tanker dry. And that was a great fund-raising activity for the student union.Now some people these days might think that's irresponsible drinking. But when I was a student and many of the students of that time—including no doubt Young Labour Young Nationals; can't remember Young Greens being there—would have enjoyed a "longest drink in town" to drink the tanker dry.But that's not common these days; New Zealanders drink far less and they tend to drink far higher-quality drinks such as all of those fantastic craft beers brewed by micro brewers in places like Wellington Auckland and around the country.So if we're thinking about what it means to drive—because it's unlikely there's public transport to a lot of these small rural race meets simply because it's not possible to deliver public transport services to every small town in every region all of the time—it's more than likely that the people going to these events will have a driver. I'm sure they will nominate a sober driver.I'm sure they'll take food—a picnic—because they'll be going for the day. So not only will they have a sober driver but a picnic lots of things to eat probably a range of non-alcoholic drinks bottled water dare I say. They'll have a few beers wines ciders or—if this was that mythical race meeting in West Auckland—some Woodies some pre-mixed bourbon and colas.And I trust the Kiwis going to that race meeting—that they will drink responsibly they will pick up their cans and bottles they'll put them in the recycling and that at the end of the day when the race meeting's over the carpark or the grass parking area will be left clean and tidy and that everybody who leaves there will go home cared for by a sober driver—and that the chance of harm coming to Kiwis going to this kind of thing is very very minimal.And yet we have heard members including the fearful Rachel Boyack—who's heard from different health groups and others that this could cause alcohol harm—that that member is so fearful of this risk of people drinking a couple of ciders or a craft beer and harm might come to a group of people. So as a result that member's stated that she will exercise her conscience and vote against the bill.Now what has New Zealand come to where we can't accept or some of us can't accept the small risk that somebody might make a mistake and they might drink a little bit too much and then I don't know they might say something to a family member or they might say something to a friend that they regret in the morning—or who knows? They might decide that actually they don't like racing after all and they'd rather be at a motor sport event. Who knows what kind of mistake they might make?But thinking this is only exempting small racing clubs and that as introduced the bill would provide for all racing clubs to be exempted—but not all racing clubs need or want the exemption. That's because larger clubs often have the resources and staff to provide hospitality services and do not want attendees to bring alcohol on to the premises. So the recommendation back from the committee is that this exemption for race meetings really should only apply to small clubs.So then we're thinking about how much harm could possibly be caused by allowing for this exemption. Yet apparently for some members of this House they are afraid of any harm. And isn't it that "afraid of any harm" approach which has really led New Zealand to where we are today—where for over 104 days in Auckland last year the city was locked down after one case of COVID was reported; one case.Simeon Brown: How much harm was caused by that?SIMON COURT: The harm from COVID became the one thing that this Government was worried about. When for Aucklanders—Simeon Brown: My daughter is still afraid of talking to other people. It's terrible what the lockdown did.SIMON COURT: —that's right—for 1.7 million Aucklanders the harm we were worried about was the fact that people who were stuck at home were young people locked out of education and then having police sent to the regional border to check truck drivers' papers that there might be this other harm called out-of-control crime. But apparently the harm that a couple of people might accidentally do to themselves in the carpark of a small horse racing club in a small town is so significant that some members believe they should vote against the bill.Well the ACT Party says "We trust Kiwis." We think that Kiwis should be able to make the odd mistake and that if they trip over on the wet grass at the racing club or at the trotting club after having an accidental tip over—and whether that's because the ground was slippery and there was no warning sign to say "Be careful slippery wet grass"—Simeon Brown: Where was the road cone?SIMON COURT: Or as the member said there were no road cones there to identify where the pothole was in the carpark—or potentially they drank one too many Woodies and then they fell over! Well the ACT Party says that the risk of that kind of harm happening is so minimal that the members of this House should all unilaterally support this wonderful exemption that would allow small racing clubs to sell and supply alcohol to members and visitors—those attending race days. It's part of our culture. We are responsible people in New Zealand; we are responsible drinkers far more responsible than we used to be.In fact some of us consider that we're responsible enough that Kiwis should also even be allowed to smoke cannabis for example which is why I personally voted "Yes" in that referendum. Because personal responsibility should extend to all aspects of our life. So I do appreciate the Green member Chlöe Swarbrick's offer to take her call on this bill because she felt that her contribution would be made at the time of voting.But as an ACT member representing New Zealanders up and down the country people who like to have a drink go to the horse racing and trust someone to get them home safely afterwards—ACT says "We'll be supporting this bill and we urge all the other members of the House to get up and do so.""