McKelvie IanSALE AND SUPPLY OF ALCOHOL (EXEMPTION FOR RACE MEETINGS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): I move That the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.It's a great pleasure for me to open this third reading on a bill in my name which if passed will have a significant impact on a very few small but very popular thoroughbred racing and harness racing clubs spread throughout rural New Zealand. That's of course one of the keys to this bill: it does have an impact on those small clubs that represent the people of rural New Zealand and of course if you look at the history of thoroughbred racing in New Zealand particularly—and well in fact both forms of racing in New Zealand they were largely popular and originated to some extent in rural New Zealand. If only our metropolitan clubs could work out they are still today the source of many owners trainers and people interested in what's colloquially known as the sport of kings"—and it is the sport of kings now not the sport of queens.This bill was first presented in 2018 as a result of the then Minister for Racing the Rt Hon Winston Peters' suggesting that attendance of race meetings was being impeded by police objecting to the ability of patrons to bring their own alcohol to race meetings where appropriate as they preferred all clubs to run on licences. Chris Bishop picked the bill up and as a result of this discussion produced a bill the next morning basically and put it in the ballot in my name. So I need to thank Chris Bishop for the original work on this bill and of course I could thank the previous Minister for Racing for having the idea but he's no longer the Minister for Racing.This morning we had a very interesting discussion with the current Minister for Racing about the strengths of the racing industry and also about some changes that are happening with respect to the TAB which are very relevant to the health of racing in New Zealand and I'll talk about that a little later. But it was a really interesting discussion and I think the racing industry is fortunate in a way to have had—and I'm not great at giving credit across the House—the last two Ministers for Racing or the last three actually who have all been cooperative in progressing what was a struggling and still is a struggling industry.This bill makes it clear that racing clubs and race meetings are not the intended targets of section 235 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. The bill effectively allows families and other race goers to attend race meetings taking their family picnics including a bottle of wine or beer and enjoy a day out without having to stand in a queue or a bar with family and friends. Some of you will be old enough to remember some of those barns in the bottom of grandstands at race meetings—Mr Speaker I'm not including you in that description of course—but the West Coast of course had a large number of those facilities and they were usually cold damp and very damp by the end of the day.This bill actually overcomes some of those challenges because the intention of it is to create a social environment that people can enjoy. Of course as I said earlier this industry has struggled in recent years and I think the changes that have been made in the last four or so years will make a significant difference to it. This bill will make a little bit more difference if it's passed.As with so many matters that concern our everyday lives we only need to look across the Tasman to a country that as recently as last month showed a Budget Day surplus; interest rates running about 2.5 percent less than ours—probably less than that now—an economy in sound shape due to the sound use of their natural resources and doing what they're best at. Their racing industry is no exception. Stakes are booming attendance is going well magnificent horses are doing well—so well that in fact 60 percent of our horses annually are bred and sold to Australia—and of course the New Zealand thoroughbred in Australia has a huge reputation and I'll just briefly touch on that in a second too. They also attract much international interest and money to their country by great promotion of their racing industry. Racing to Australia is a little like the All Blacks or Black Ferns to New Zealand—a wonderful advertisement for the country. This industry has the potential—with the changes that have been made in the last four years and with some encouragement to our breeding industry—to be a great tourist attraction for New Zealand as well. I think that it's important that we keep it going. We breed better horses in New Zealand than almost—I'll take the risk of saying it in here—anywhere else in the world—Hon Louise Upston: We do.IAN McKELVIE: —and we've proved that. Of course the member to my right Louise Upston comes right from the heart of the great horse breeding area of New Zealand. So back to the bill. The activities this bill promotes can be achieved now in a form by larger clubs who have the facilities and resources to manage the licence applications to manage the distribution and sale of alcohol under their licensing. The most notable one of those for mine is the CJC the Canterbury Jockey Club at the New Zealand Cup meeting where they have literally thousands of people around their boots under the beautiful trees of Riccarton—and in what I would call an interesting but civilised environment I think quite exciting actually. The small clubs that we're promoting and enabling here do not have the resources to make it work in this manner nor do they often have the facilities to run bar facilities that cater for the crowds they get because generally these are small clubs—they're defined as small clubs in the racing Act and that means they run two or less meetings a year—and they're generally run in holiday environments and enable quite large crowds to turn up. Last night we heard the first reading speeches on a bill designed to enable pubs clubs and other licensed facilities to open for World Cup rugby events being held at odd times of the day or night because of the time difference between us and the Northern Hemisphere. In an interesting sort of way this bill achieves much the same thing for the small racing clubs of New Zealand. It enables them to do something a little easier and I guess it enables them to attract people to their racecourse they may well otherwise not just as the bill we put through the first reading last night when passed will enable those hospitality facilities to do the same thing. My life in racing started a long long long time ago and as a teenager I tried to train a horse. I've ridden a few but you can tell I've never been a jockey—I wasn't built that way unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it.Hon Member: Built for comfort not for speed.IAN McKELVIE: Yeah the long and short of it. And I have had a lifelong interest in racing and have also been the president of a racing club—a two-meeting club interestingly—and as I said have lifelong interests in the racing industry the breeding industry and all those things that go with it. I think as I said earlier it's a very important industry for New Zealand it's important that we continue to promote it and I think that it's essential that we give people the opportunity to enjoy the things that my generation had the opportunity to enjoy for much the same reasons that we're here looking at this bill now. I do want to thank the following clubs who strongly supported the bill and they're generally harness racing clubs interestingly: Manawatu Harness Racing Club Kaikoura Trotting Club Rangiora Harness Racing Club Wairio Jockey Club Banks Peninsula Trotting Club and Central Otago Trotting Clubs. I want to thank all those people who had an input into it the committee staff who helped us and in fact did a very good job of advising us on a way of I guess achieving what we set out to achieve with this bill without involving the big racing clubs in New Zealand who have the resources to do this on their own. It was very fortunate that when we passed the racing Act some 3½ years ago now we inserted a clause defining "small racing clubs" because that's just been transferred to this and I think that's been a bonus for this bill. I also want to thank the Governance and Administration Committee who helped shepherd this through to this point. I want to thank all those who've supported the bill as it's got this far through the House and I very much hope that it goes a little further today. This industry has struggled in New Zealand in recent years and any little glimmer of help that we can give them will be great for them. So I urge members to support the bill at third reading as it will give our volunteers running our small rural clubs new life and may well result in new people joining our great racing industry. Thank you Mr Speaker."