Lees-Galloway Iain: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15116] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 Clause 1 refers to the title of the bill and as we all know the title offered up by the Government is the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill. On the surface that seems perfectly sensible. The title refers to the period of time during and around the Rugby World Cup 2011. It empowers the Rugby World Cup Authority which is created by the bill the Government of course and a Minister—we are not quite sure which Minister; it might be the Minister for the Rugby World Cup or another Minister—to do more or less what the Minister likes. In those terms one might think the title is fairly appropriate because the bill vests an enormous amount of power in one individual Minister. It empowers that Minister to do more or less what the Minister pleases. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: It is nice that the Minister in the chair Jonathan Coleman could amble his way down to the chair to join us for this debate. We are on clause 1 the title of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (Empowering) Bill which before the dinner break I was saying seems superficially like a fairly reasonable title for the bill. I note that the Government steered away from using in the title the word “enabling” instead of “empowering”. Enabling bills were of course favoured amongst some of the 20th century’s better dictators and the word “enabling” might have alluded to some of the dictatorial powers included in Part 4 of this bill so it was probably wise to steer away from it although it would have been a sensible word to have included rather than “empowering”; “enabling” might have been a bit more appropriate. 
The “Rugby World Cup 2011 (Elected Dictatorship) Bill” would have been quite good because essentially Part 4 offers a Minister of the Crown absolute complete total authority over what goes on around the Rugby World Cup and all the provisions within the bill and the authority that has been set up are just about completely meaningless because of the elected dictatorship that is established in Part 4. 
Another title could be the “Rugby World Cup 2011 (Vesting Total Authority in One Minister) Bill” which is essentially what this legislation does. It could be the “Rugby World Cup 2011 (Establishing an Impotent Authority) Bill” because the vast majority of the bill—Parts 1 2 3 5 and 6—deals with establishing an authority to deal with a range of aspects of the Rugby World Cup from liquor licensing through to venue establishment through to events that occur around the Rugby World Cup. This legislation establishes an authority that is supposed to have control over those events grant liquor licences give people authority to hold those events and run test events in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup but in fact all of that authority is completely undermined by Part 4. The bill establishes a completely impotent authority. In the case that the Minister disagrees with the authority’s position he can just come straight in and overrule anything that the authority does. Although the bulk of the bill—many many clauses and many many pages—is turned over to establishing this authority the real crux of the bill is Part 4 which says that even though we have an authority it is completely impotent and completely useless in the event that the Minister disagrees with what the authority says. 
Given the nature of the debate thus far from the Government benchers few and far between as it has been Government members have not looked to engage in the debate as much as all that but they have tried to say that Labour members hate rugby that we do not want to have a good event and that we do not want to run a good event. I would say that that would make this the “Rugby World Cup 2011 (Short-term Memory Loss) Bill”. They forget about the previous Labour Government and Helen Clark who as we all well know now flew to Korea via Ireland. Who does that I do not know but it showed how keen she was and how much she had vested in being part of the delegation to the Rugby World Cup to make sure that New Zealand got the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The Government has conveniently forgotten all of that effort put in by Labour and all of the support that Labour would continue to offer for this bill if the Government could just make some tiny amendments to Part 4. We wanted to build a consensus and be able to have a bilateral approach to this but the Government refused to take that up. 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I have a question. Prior to the dinner break when we were voting on various parts—4 5 and 6 I think—Labour gave split votes which is absolutely fine of course. But I bring your attention to Standing Order 139(2) which states: “If a party casts a split-party vote the member casting the vote must deliver to the Clerk at the Table immediately after the vote a list showing the names of the members of that party voting in the various categories.” I recall that there were votes for votes agin and abstentions from the party opposite. I ask whether those names have been tabled yet and whether they are available to the Committee.