McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank you Madam Speaker. There's an old saying in racing you know that the only person making money at the races is the bloke following the horse with the shovel. The Minister just referred to that a minute ago and actually that's probably true. But there's also when you think about life in my business that I came from to come to this place the dog always followed the horse so the horse came first. That's why this bill is framed in the manner it is because the dog always does follow the horse in history really. But it's a great pleasure to stand here and speak at the third reading of what's for the racing industry the long awaited Racing Industry Bill the second of the bills brought about to reform the governance the overseas gaming operations the ability of the TAB to operate in New Zealand with the Racing Integrity Board and the three codes in New Zealand—thoroughbred harness and the greyhounds. It comes through the House at a time when the industry is probably facing the greatest crisis in its history. Some of that crisis is brought about by the fact that for three months there was no work no income and many of the people in the industry had nothing to do. So an extraordinary time which put huge challenges on the industry and certainly put the industry I guess to the point of being basically in crisis. That crisis is not over. Hopefully as a result of this bill the industry will get itself back on its feet and get itself moving quickly because there's some urgency about the fact that it needs to get itself going and get going very quickly. I want to commend the Minister for bringing these reforms to the House. As he said himself there are a few of us that are passionate about racing. It's a very very old industry of course and I suppose a very very old sport. In my part of the world the first races were held in the very early 1860s in New Zealand and no doubt they'd been racing before that but that was certainly the first records of racing in that part of the world.I just want to talk about one or two things aside from the racing bill because getting the racing industry back on its feet is very important. And one of the challenges that the industry's got right now is around the sales process because if we don't have a strong horse breeding industry we don't have a racing industry we don't have an export industry and it's all hugely important to New Zealand.It's very important for our thoroughbred industry particularly—certainly our harness horses as well—that we end up with a strong sales process. Those sales historically take place in January and February and if we don't get our borders secure and our country back operating by then that industry is going to battle. And the reason they're going to battle is because it's all very well to go online but for anyone who understands animals it's very difficult to look at an animal online and think you've got what you've got coming. It would be a little bit like finding your partner online I suppose. People do that these days but I don't know whether I would trust it. So that's one of the challenges we've got.The next challenge that the industry's got to face and face quickly is the TAB and getting the TAB operating in a manner that we need to get it operating in New Zealand and make it competitive internationally. The reason it's got to be competitive internationally is because this is a huge international industry the gaming industry. And for New Zealand to operate successfully we have to attract overseas investment into New Zealand in the form of gaming because we have a product that's second to none in the world if we can get it right and the world will support our product if we get it right and that's a critical thing about it.To that extent the development of our tracks and the development of our racecourses and as the Minister himself put it the finery of racing are hugely important because we've got to appeal to an international market. We've got to make this thing work. I think this bill and the work that's been done in the last I guess six or eight months certainly will help that and the industry I think will take great heart from it. So it's important that we get a TAB board appointed that works for the industry and works for New Zealand. Racing New Zealand has been set up as part of this bill as well. Now there's been a Racing New Zealand in effect in the past. It was called ironically the RIB. And of course we've now got an RIB in this bill which is a different set-up altogether. This one is the Racing Integrity Board which controls the integrity the welfare of both gamblers and horses and ensures that the industry has the integrity that can then be marketed internationally. So that's very important. But getting back to Racing New Zealand it's important that Racing New Zealand is established set up and operates from a unanimous and united perspective. And it's very important in my view that those three industry bodies act collectively when they approach the Minister for anything they require and that they act collectively in their approach to the industry because they'll be much better off if they can do that and I think they will have a much greater influence in the future of their industry if they can do that. The other thing I want to talk about is the clauses in the bill which effectively put some tension around the ownership of property that's no longer being used for the racing industry. I think it's important that we retain that tension—and the bill does retain that tension—so that there is a tension for racing clubs to act one way or another to resolve the property issues that have dogged the industry for well at least 50 years. I think the intention of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee and the intention of the bill is to put a tension on those clubs that are no longer racing to do something with their asset. Now our intention I think is that those assets are retained in the communities and by that we mean a broader community—probably regionally—and that they're retained for racing where possible or where practical. It's not essential however and I think in some cases communities have a great interest in those assets and those assets should be used for the betterment of those communities. I think that's the intention of the bill. If you look at the history of racing almost all of the clubs and properties that have been rationalised have been centralised into other racing properties. So that's practically happened in the industry but it needs to continue to happen because of the great need to update as I said earlier those facilities and get those things working. So that was our intention around the clauses that dealt with racing clubs and their properties.I don't think I've got much more to add to that. I think it's been a very good process. Yes I do have a couple more things I want to add. I just wanted to acknowledge John Masara because I think he came to New Zealand and did this work for nothing and he did it out of the love of racing. Racing's not a typical business. It's a little different than the normal kind of business and that's one of the challenges it has of course. So we've got to put that tension back into it as well. You'll never turn it into a real business but none the less gaming is a huge international business and it's important that it's done properly. So I think the work that John Masara did for us whilst it created a few problems around some of the property issues for the select committee and for those of us in the industry and certainly from a submission perspective—he did a great job for racing in New Zealand. I think the other thing that really made a difference to this bill was the very large number of people in the industry who supported through submissions and I guess the encouragement of both the Minister and the select committee to get things right. I hate to say it but this will probably be the best of the legislation that this Government passes. Thank you.