Ryall Tony: Gambling Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Ryall Tony: Gambling Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:622;Page:18112] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 In beginning my contribution on the Gambling Amendment Bill can I just comment on the view of Heather Roy who talked about the fact that she was told that ACT was the only party opposing this legislation—as it appears New Zealand First was told it was the only party opposing the legislation and I think she indicated that the Greens were told they were the only party opposing this legislation. I must tell the House that the National Party was also told it was the only party opposing this legislation. When I was told that— 
Rod Donald 
: You ended up supporting it. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: —in the beginning about a month ago I said I did not know where the spin was coming from because we had not considered it. And I cannot imagine the ACT party wanting to support this privilege for licensing trusts. Whatever the shenanigans that have been managed out of the Minister’s office they have certainly antagonised the parties involved. 
The Gambling Act itself has been the subject of some interest in the Bay of Plenty in recent weeks. As the local member of Parliament I have been approached by a number of people who are disappointed with the proposals that the Government has passed to change the way in which pokie funds for example are distributed. Last Friday I met with people from Otamarakau School near Te Puke which received a $45000 grant from the Lion Foundation to put in a playground at their school. The school could never ever have afforded a playground other than through that generous contribution from the Lion Foundation. Otamarakau School fears that the Government’s plan to have grants centralised from a few Auckland-based authorities will mean that those schools at the end of the line miss out. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: What? The member is making it up again—mincing in the House and making it up. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The Minister may say that but I have to say it is only 3 days until we have a Minister of Education without a speech impediment. The Minister can say I am making it up but he was not there on Friday when people from Otamarakau School came and talked to me about their concerns. I think it is a very important issue that those schools are concerned about their ability to provide services and facilities for their communities because of the changes to these plans. 
A month ago I accompanied the next member of Parliament for the Otago electorate Jackie Deans of Oamaru into Oamaru. Amongst the appointments we had was a meeting with the Oamaru Licensing Trust. The trust explained to me its frustration as a result of the changes to the Gambling Act that prevented it from being involved in the distribution of local profits. The trust explained the reason. Because the trust is an elected authority it has a level of democratic mandate. It is a community authority. From the applications made for the proceeds that the trust gathered from pokie machines it had a clear knowledge of which organisations were double-dipping or triple-dipping which organisations were legitimate and which were not. The trust was able to bring that local knowledge to bear in its allocation decisions. 
I challenged the trust on one of the concerns that the Government expressed when it passed the Gambling Act. The Government said that those who had input into the decisions on where pokie profits went—that is publicans—often had trade-offs and contra-deals whereby they might sponsor a sports group and expect it to buy beer as it were from its local establishment. I tackled the Oamaru Licensing Trust on that. The trust was clear that licensing trusts were much more considered in their sponsorship arrangements and the way that they got involved in the community and that no such deals were ever contemplated by those organisations. 
As I travelled around Oamaru with Jackie Deans the National Party candidate for Otago and the next member of Parliament— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Jackie Deans from Oamaru. She is the former Deputy Mayor of Oamaru. More people in Oamaru have voted for her in her political career than have voted for David Parker. Jackie Deans the National Party candidate for Otago was able to demonstrate the important benefits to that community from the Oamaru Licensing Trust. I think she together with the trust made a convincing argument about why trusts should be entitled to maintain the right they currently have to approve those grants. 
I suppose it is testament to the lobbying power of the Invercargill Licensing Trust and the Waitakere Licensing Trust that the Government would move so swiftly to introduce this legislation into the House under urgency. I am not sure whether anyone else in New Zealand would consider it is the sort of legislation that requires Parliament to sit on a Friday afternoon and maybe go into a Saturday afternoon. 
Dail Jones 
: It’s Tuesday afternoon. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: We are in the real world here. We are here on Friday afternoon and possibly the sitting will flow into Saturday afternoon if not Monday morning. I do not think this bill is relevant to an urgency motion because there is no definitive date by which the bill has to be passed. It will just mosey its way through the select committee process. There is no great sense of urgency from the Government on it. I cannot see any benefit whatsoever from it being included in the urgency motion. I think it is equivalent to the amendment bill dealing with Tokelauan coins which was one of the centrepieces of the urgency motion during the “mother of all Budgets” in 1991. 
A number of members have given contributions on why people should be prevented from gambling and on why people should be denied the right to play a pokie machine. I think this House often loses sight of the fact that adults should be able to make those sorts of choices in their own lives. They should be allowed to decide whether they want to gamble their money. They should be free to choose how they spend their discretionary income. This fact of poor people spending a lot of their income on gambling is nothing new. In years gone by people would rail about the amount of money spent at housie halls in Christchurch. They would rail about people who went to the trots or to the races and spent their pay packets on the horses. They would rail against people who spent their money on for example Golden Kiwi. There have always been gambling choices for New Zealanders. It is a good part of entertainment and New Zealanders should be able to expect to continue to have those choices. If Green Party members for example are worried about low-income people spending their money on gambling then I have to tell them that if they close off one opportunity people will exercise their freedom of choice to gamble somewhere else. Really what Parliament should be doing is regulating in the way that we are doing currently without being extensive and denying people’s rights. 
The National Party in Opposition will support the progress of the Gambling Amendment Bill. I know that Jackie Deans who I am sure is out knocking on doors in Oamaru and Alexandra today will be pleased to know that we support the progress of this legislation.