O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): I guess it is an honour to speak—it might be my last speech in this particular Parliament and on a racing bill which I guess in the scheme of things probably does not rate very highly in terms of the issues that New Zealand faces. I have been a Minister. I can say to the Minister in the seat there now David Bennett that he will be lucky if he makes it to the election in that position because the industry has—and I have to say with the exception of Minister Guy—a reputation for getting rid of chairs of the board and of Ministers. It is a tough industry. What we did in Government of course was open the door for sports betting and work with the industry on new opportunities.But it was clear at that time that without some fresh thinking the industry was going to face continual decline. That is indeed what has happened. Labour supports this change because it is just fair. It just means that we clip the ticket for what is a growing offshore betting element and some of that money should stay here because there are a lot of people across the racing industry who invest in the product to be bet on by you all—to be profited from by offshore bookmakers.To come back to the core issue—and it was brought home to me when that international sporting team the Parliamentary Rugby Team did visit Palermo which is probably one of the pre-eminent racecourses in South America in Argentina. It was an impressive facility but it was vacant like many many racecourses in New Zealand. There were people there but they were all underground playing 4000 poker machines that provided the revenue to keep the racing industry on top of the ground going. Now that is not a sustainable model and what we have in New Zealand is a similar situation that the racing industry does have fewer Kiwis—and we go back to the rugby racing and beer" which was the old culture one that is shifting and racing is missing out.I know that after I was moved on from my portfolio another gentleman galloped in on his white horse and promised to save the industry. Mr Peters did indeed offer some good benefits—that is he gave the industry a $35 million tax break. That was appreciated at the time and a couple of other tweaks around breeding were appreciated by the racing industry. But it has not dealt with the core issue. Until the industry deals with that—and it is not easy—then it is going to continue to struggle. I thought I was making some progress and of course they turned a tide as they do and any Minister who challenges the current paradigm they turn. Anyone chairing the TAB or the Racing Board—as it was; it is all now one—if anyone dares to challenge the status quo then they get dealt to. It is not the way that the industry has to approach the future. Disruption and challenges are occurring across all industries and all sporting activities in the world and the racing industry has to find the core that attracts people to it so that it can retain them and their interest in it.There are some amazing race meetings around the country at small racing clubs. There might be only one or two events a year but lots of people go and have a great time and appreciate the efforts of all those people in the racing clubs to get those meetings together. But for a long time there has been a view in Wellington and with the central bureaucracy that you should close all of those down and centralise and cut off the rural support base for the racing industry because the core of the betting—the core of the gambling and attendances—is often around the cities which is true and logical. But if you chop off that heritage component and the small racing clubs does that help the industry grow? I say no.So what they need to do is get into technology. I believe you have got to put cameras in the event as happened with motor racing as happens with cricket and as happens with rugby even when you have got a camera on the ref—although I do not know whether that adds anything or not in that particular case. But the point is that the public now demands virtual reality or to be part of the action. That is one avenue I think that the racing industry has toyed with. It does do some of this but it has actually got to jump into it.I will not give them too many more hints. I am sure there will be a consultant out there somewhere who might want to charge them for all that wisdom. It is a great industry and I accept the wisdom of the member for Rangitīkei who knows horses inside and out—he has ridden a few of them—that we do have a wonderful bloodstock industry in this country but we must have more than just their objectives. We must have a public that wants to participate to grow the industry. Otherwise the money that was given by Minister Peters and the efforts made by all the Ministers—including this extra revenue stream here—will amount to nowt over time.I would like to see a racing industry because it is part of our heritage and I would like to see it prosper but without change that is not going to happen. The Minister probably will not be in the job long enough to make any significant change but I applaud his efforts to bring this legislation into the House finally. The industry has been waiting for it while Minister Guy sat on his hands. Minister Bennett has brought this into the House. Well done and I am sure that we can pass this under the new Labour-led Government. We will happy to progress this but we will be saying to the industry that there is more needed than this to give a prosperous long-term racing industry. Thank you.Eugenie Sage: Mr Speaker."