Coates BarryBARRY COATES (Green): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. I rise to address the Racing Amendment Bill. The Green Party recognises there are benefits to the racing industry from this bill. We have seen estimates that this bill and the extension of a levy on betting agencies would raise around $1.6 billion annually after a period of time—[Interruption] Sorry $16 million after a period of time. Thank you. The industry itself accounts for about $1.6 billion a year and 17000 jobs. It would be a good bill if it doubled the industry size.Hon Amy Adams: And you guys want to be on the Treasury benches. That's a worry.BARRY COATES: Yeah thank you. The legislation would support offshore operators paying their fair share for racing in New Zealand. We think it is a good thing that it extends oversight to offshore operators. We understand that they are largely the bigger betting agencies that account for most of the anticipated revenue like William Hill and Ladbrokes and others. We also understand they are based primarily in the Northern Territory in Australia chasing a low tax regime. We recognise that the levy would apply only to bookies over $60000 of revenue.With all that we think that there are some benefits for the racing industry from this bill. We are however concerned about two aspects. I might say just by way of preface that the Green Party is acutely aware of gambling harm. We are acutely aware of the number of problem gamblers in this country and of the good work undertaken by agencies like the Problem Gambling Foundation the Salvation Army and others.The two aspects that we are particularly worried about have been highlighted in submissions by the Problem Gambling Foundation and by the Salvation Army. The first of these concerns live betting during racing and sports. Studies have shown that live betting can generate substantially higher forms of problem gambling compared with pre-race betting. That is because it is a form of continuous gambling that is characterised by a very short time between placing a bet and the outcome. It creates a cycle where people react to the emotions of placing bets and we think that it creates problems in terms of people being able to consider adequately the impact of their action. This research I think has been well documented in the Problem Gambling Foundation's submission.The second aspect that concerns us is the proposal that this may be a way to extend gambling into other sports than are currently covered. We do not think that there are enough controls or that there has been enough discussion around the potential for the problems that that may cause. We contrast it with the controls over class 4 gambling—pokie machines in particular—where at the community level there is a sinking-lid policy.To us the problem with this bill is that it opens up these two areas to potentially a significant expansion of gambling. We are concerned that this is essentially almost a Trojan Horse. On the one hand we are having a quite sensible introduction of levies on overseas betting agencies and we have no problem with that. The problem is the other aspects of the bill that are included in this legislation. Because of our concerns in those two areas because of the fact that this bill might usher in higher problems in gambling and an increase in gambling harm the Green Party finds it impossible to support this bill. Therefore we regret to say that we oppose this bill. Thank you.