Mallard Trevor: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:987. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South):Because this bill spent very little time being considered at the Law and Order Committee the Labour Opposition wants to look at it carefully and to ask a series of questions.The first question I would like to ask is whether Nathan Guy the Minister who is currently in the chair has been briefed on the legislation to the point where he understands it and can answer questions. If the Minister could shake his head or nod his head to indicate whether he has been briefed and can answer questions—no he has not. Well I just want to make it clear to the Committee that the Labour Party was prepared to flick this bill through with no consideration at the Committee stage if in fact there had been a proper process of a couple of hours at a select committee where the questions from the Labour Party could have been answered. But notwithstanding an undertaking from Mike Sabin the committee chair that that would take place that did not occur and therefore what the Labour Party will do today and if necessary tomorrow as part of the Committee process—which is four debates on this bill—is ask the questions until we get satisfactory answers. I regret that that has to be the case especially with legislation that we generally support—especially with legislation that we generally support.I would like to start off with the title and whether it is in fact the appropriate title—in particular the 2014 date that is involved with it. As to that the first question I would like to ask is in regard to New Zealand’s share of the arrangements for the Cricket World Cup next year. When was it made clear that New Zealand would be involved in that? I have got a vague memory that it might have been in 2006 and I would like the Minister in the chair the Hon Dr Nick Smith to confirm that it was in 2006 that we got to the point of knowing that this would be happening in February of 2015. I might be wrong but I am pretty certain it was somewhere around that time. So the question that flows from that is: why have we taken so long to get legislation to come in?I was a Minister of sport until a date in 2007 when I was involved in the sporting activity of boxing with one of my colleagues who I understand is currently before the courts. I am not sure whether we are allowed to refer to his case; I know we are not allowed to refer to the details of it. But I am pretty sure New Zealand’s involvement in the Cricket World Cup was known before that time and we knew then that we would need legislation on match fixing. I had discussions in I think June 2012—maybe in 2011 but in 2012 certainly—in 2013 and four or five times earlier this year with Ministers opposite to indicate that the Labour Party was supportive of whatever reasonable legislative change was necessary in order to get this legislation through in a way that helped our international reputation and was fair to the players involved.There were a lot of discussions and even at the point that the legislation was sitting on the Table—and it sat on the Table for a reasonable period of time before it was sent off to the Law and Order Committee—I indicated to Ministers opposite that we did not want to be caught in exactly this situation after the election in the period heading up to Christmas taking up valuable parliamentary time on legislation around which there was a degree of unanimity within Parliament. So I indicated to Ministers opposite that if they wanted to they could send the committee off with a truncated first reading as long as we had a day at the committee to question the officials from Sport New Zealand the Ministry of Justice and the various sporting organisations. It would probably have taken a couple of hours to work through the questions with the people who had the answers to those questions.I do not know what happened to the organisation of the House but that did not occur. We had the first reading. The bill was sent off and—as I have indicated to the House previously and it is not worth going over it too much more—I indicated to the chair of the Law and Order Committee that if we could work through the issues with Sport New Zealand with the Rugby Union with the Rugby League Association and with New Zealand Cricket as a minimum group and as part of a group with the TAB which of course has quite a lot of expertise in that area then the Labour Party would facilitate the further passage of the bill. I again indicated to Ministers opposite that this stage of the bill would probably not be necessary if we could get unanimity but as has been indicated the undertaking to get the sporting organisations in was not met apparently because officials told the chair of the select committee that it was not necessary. Officials told the chair of the select committee that it was not necessary. It is an unusual approach for members of a select committee who are looking to foreshorten parliamentary time and debate to get things through not to work in a cooperative way.I do want to say that it is not my intention that the Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill be the Act of 2015. You know it is our intention—just to stay strictly on the letter of it—to get it through in 2014 rather than leave it to the couple of days that would be available when Parliament gets back in the new year. It might interrupt the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement if we have to pressure it in that way to get it through before the Cricket World Cup.With regard to some of the detailed questions I think it is probably worth giving a bit of a signal as to the areas that we do want to ask questions about. I want to ask questions when we get on to later clauses of the bill around the International Rugby Board rules and how they relate to this—whether they are consistent with this area or not. I want to ask about the FIFA rules and the decisions as to where to hold matches that are currently the subject of corruption allegations as far as the FIFA organisation is concerned. I want to ask whether the location of matches and the betting on where matches are located are caught by this bill or whether or not it is concerned with only match-fixing within a particular match or not. So what I am trying to find out here is the scope of the legislation.I want to ask the Minister in the chair—and I do not mind whether he replies later when he is properly briefed—which countries are covered. Is it a betting outcome in New Zealand and therefore a bet within New Zealand? Is a bet with Centrebet covered and if it is a New Zealander who makes the bet and if the bet with Centrebet is covered what if the activity is offshore? Are offshore activities covered or are they only covered in New Zealand? So is a New Zealander betting with Centrebet on something in New Zealand covered or not? Is someone betting with a local bookie covered? Are we covering only legal bets or are we covering illegal bets? There are a lot of questions in that area.