Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm pleased to be able to rise and speak also in support of the Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill. While sport was a very big part of my life some years ago it has been less so in the last few years and so I was very happy to take my lead on this bill from my friend and colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse. As we've heard Michael Woodhouse was a top rugby referee and I have to confess there may have been times when I called his integrity into question when he may have been refereeing Otago versus Southland and I didn't feel he had both eyes open at that time. However notwithstanding that I was very happy to take the lead from the Hon Michael Woodhouse.Look the purpose of this bill is quite clear and it is to strengthen and protect the integrity of New Zealand sports and recreation. As again my friend and colleague the Hon Mark Mitchell has said that's incredibly important to us in New Zealand because we are known for being tough sportspeople but for being fair and so this helps support that reputation and helps support the individual codes.Several reports did outline that the sector has insufficient capability to deal with integrity issues. As I said in a previous life I was very involved with hockey at regional level and at national level and there is never a lot of money and there is never a lot of resources. So I was particularly pleased with the work of the Social Services and Community Committee in making some slight changes around the fees to ensure that fees would not be charged for complaints and investigations. I think that's a very enabling addition to the bill and I thank the select committee for bringing about those small changes. I acknowledge that this could have perhaps gone to a number of select committees but I do occasionally sit on the Social Services and Community Committee and I'm sure that they were particularly mindful and respectful of the submitters—the 183 submitters and those that made oral submissions. So I thank both the submitters but also the select committee for listening and giving consideration to those submitters.My colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse has talked about how important it will be for the emphasis to be on education and prevention because we know that mandating is much less successful than educating and preventing things before they happen. So the key functions of the commission have been outlined as promoting advising and educating on integrity issues and threats to integrity and so it will be really important to see that come through strongly.It will be also important—and again my colleague has talked about it the Hon Michael Woodhouse—that we don't have to reinvent the wheel on many of these matters: developing the integrity codes setting minimum standards of conduct prescribing policies and procedures. We are not the first to have engaged in this and it will be really important that we don't waste time and money by trying to reinvent the wheel when there will be many good examples that we can pick up on. So I endorse the comments of the Hon Michael Woodhouse on this.The ability to investigate suspected breaches of integrity in codes and threats to integrity—being an external and independent set of eyes—will be incredibly important as part of this role. It is very difficult in a country our size in different sporting codes—we all get to know each other very well and so having that ability to have that external and independent set of eyes is going to be an extremely valuable thing.A couple of the other small changes that were made through the select committee process: putting in place the three-year review period I think is a very sensible thing to do and also adding age into the list of characteristics because as I think the select committee found during the submissions process particularly around sporting codes such as gymnastics and I would probably think swimming also a lot of the elite or pre-elite athletes there are very young children. So again a very sensible change made by the select committee.So I'm certainly very pleased to join with all the other voices around the House tonight in supporting—sorry I accept that it's not a unanimous support but the vast majority of speakers supporting this bill. So thank you for the opportunity to participate Madam Speaker.