Jones Dail: Gambling Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Gambling Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:19852] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 I will take a brief call to say that when this matter was first discussed with New Zealand First and other parties in this House the suggestion was made that the matter should be put in the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4). People were told that that would be quicker. New Zealand First had pressure put on it from licensing trusts that said every other party supported that action except for us. As we discovered during the course of discussions with the National Party and other parties and during the course of the debate at the first reading that particular line—that other political parties supported the legislation going into the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4)—was used with every political party. But it transpired that that was not the case as National and other parties proved during the first reading debate. 
In fact if this legislation had gone into that Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) it would still not be getting passed today because that bill is well down the Order Paper. So putting it as a separate bill has proved to be the best thing possible. I think that the stand taken by New Zealand First National and other parties to have this legislation as a separate bill works very much to the advantage of the Licensing Trusts Association. The attitude adopted by the trusts would have backfired on them if the legislation had been left in that Statutes Amendment Bill. 
We all want to make sure that when money is raised by gambling in west Auckland it can be spent in west Auckland if it is raised in Ashburton it can be spent in Ashburton and that that can be done in a similar way right around the country in places where there are licensing trusts. The people of Invercargill would like their money spent in Southland—on Southland rugby perhaps rather than supporting say North Harbour although North Harbour members would appreciate any extra funds that might be made available to the North Harbour Rugby Union which has an unfortunate habit of losing players to South Island cities. 
However New Zealand First supports this legislation. It is short legislation that rectifies a mistake made by the Labour Government when it rushed through earlier gambling legislation under urgency. The Government Administration Committee has looked at this legislation closely and has even made an amendment to it to take into account an error that cropped up. The amendment could not have been made if this were for example a statutes amendment bill but it was able to be made by way of the Gambling Amendment Bill in order to help key operators. 
I also make the point that the leader of New Zealand First considers the issue of gambling so important and so detrimental to family life that he has taken the trouble to come to the House to speak on the bill today. I see that no leader of any other political party in New Zealand is at all interested in the detrimental effect that gambling can have on family life. It goes to show that New Zealand First is very interested in what happens to struggling families poorer families Maori families or any families in which people think that the answer to everything may be found in a pokie machine or in some other form of gambling. That is not the case. We consider gambling to be a very serious issue. I touched on it during the first reading and the Rt Hon Winston Peters has expressed that view on it much better than I ever could. New Zealand First supports this bill which makes a minor change to the advantage of licensing trusts. 
Bill read a second time.