Goodhew Jo: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingThird Reading 
Goodhew Jo: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingThird Reading 
[Volume:643;Page:13228] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 I rise in support of the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3). I do so having come to understand more about what this sort of bill is in aid of and its purpose. The Regulations Review Committee brought this bill to the House. As other speakers have already outlined a number of different confirmations and validations are in Part 2 of the bill. They include the Animal Products Act 1999 Commodity Levies Act 1990 Customs and Excise Act 1996 Fisheries Act 1996 Gambling Act 2003—which I intend to spend a bit more time on soon—New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 Social Security Act 1964 Road User Charges Act 1977 Tariff Act 1988 and War Pensions Act 1954. I intend to spend a little bit more time on some of these particular Acts and on the importance of their being validated here today in the House. I reiterate that National is supporting this legislation. But even though the whole House is likely to be supporting the legislation it does not make it any less important that we understand what the bill actually brings into play. 
One area I have a particular interest in is the Gambling Act 2003 and the levy that will be validated by this particular legislation. It seems that gambling is an area that others here in the House this afternoon are interested in as well. I am particularly interested in it because in my previous life working in crime prevention I came to understand a little bit more about the need for a problem-gambling levy. We need the levy so that we have the opportunity to put in place some element of counselling and to make sure that problem gambling is seen. This afternoon the member Te Ururoa Flavell talked about some of the gambling that we all grew up with—for example euchre and housie evenings. In fact I remember some years ago we had a gambling night when we were betting on horses that were cut out of plywood. We wound up the rope to see who could wind up the rope the fastest. 
That is the sort of gambling that for many many years people have had a great sense of fun with. They have also actually raised money as has been suggested here in the House already. That is the sort of gambling that continues and is the safe sort of gambling. In recent years we have become aware of some of the hardship and some of the significant personal social and economic costs for individuals families communities and the general public that problem gambling has wrought. 
It has a disproportionate effect on some groups and communities. Problem gambling contributes to poverty and socio-economic inequalities but that has been addressed since 1996 by successive Governments and there is now a problem-gambling levy. Other aspects have now been used. I must say that the implementation of pop-ups on the one-armed bandits or pokies—call them what you like—has been brought into play. Having talked to the owners of clubs and pubs and even the people who operate casinos I am unconvinced as of yet whether the pop-ups actually do a lot of good. After all some of the problem gamblers will simply press the button and off they go and continue. Because problem gambling is an addiction. It is an addiction that tears apart families. It is an addiction that is not cheap to treat either because as with other addictions the counselling required and the detection of people with that addiction is quite expensive in terms of personnel and being people with an addiction those people are cunning. They are very very cunning and therefore they will try to escape detection by the people running the casinos pubs or clubs. 
It is really important that we have that levy but equally the National Party’s way of looking at it will always be that there must be a very good cost-benefit analysis of how we spend the levy. Our colleague Sandra Goudie has certainly shown that in the past some of the problem-gambling services have not been doing a good job but have been spending an inordinate amount of money on counselling that probably has not been put to good effect. 
What else would happen if this legislation were not passed? In another part of the bill we need to confirm the War Pensions (Rates of Pensions Lump Sum Payments and Allowances) Order 2007. War pensions are indexed annually to take into account the percentage increase in the consumer price index over the previous calendar year. It is absolutely imperative that we do that each year. I am sure it is not something that is easily forgotten but equally it is important for those who are receiving war pensions under the War Pensions Act 1954 that it is increased and indexed to the consumer price index because those same people are often left on limited incomes. Those same people are often left with disabilities that have come about as a part of their actions in serving our country. They served it many years ago but now their health has suffered as a result of doing that. 
We also need to make sure that the superannuitants of New Zealand are looked after. That is why we need to confirm the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the Social Security Act 1964. That is also indexed to the consumer price index and those people are often on limited incomes and will certainly be looking out to make sure that their income is increasing. 
In summary I would say that while being in the House this afternoon for this particular bill the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) I have learnt quite a lot about what has been described as a bill that simply passes legislation that needs to be validated and confirmed each year. The report of the Regulations Review Committee tells us that it asked the nine Government agencies responsible for administering this subordinate legislation to confirm that this action is required and to explain why confirmation and validation is warranted. The committee reported that it was satisfied by the agencies’ responses. Therefore I would just say that National has great pleasure in supporting this legislation and that I have learnt a lot about this type of legislation this afternoon.