Faafoi KrisKRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): I think people from the racing industry will be watching the first reading of this piece of legislation and it will be a bittersweet evening for them because they have been waiting for some time for this legislation. But I think the collective of the racing industry will be thanking God that this piece of legislation has found its way to this House altogether. Just one question I would ask of the Minister is as to the select committee that he has chosen to send this piece of legislation to. Yes this piece of legislation does involve the racing industry but it really does go around to the administration of the revenue of the racing board and around racing and sporting codes. My understanding of that kind of legislation is that it usually goes to the Government Administration Committee and I have to question why this is going to the Primary Production Committee. But I will come back to that at some stage later on.There has been for 2 years now a degree of frustration in the racing industry because it has been waiting for this legislation to arrive. I do not want to put too much of the blame on the heels of the current Minister the Hon David Bennett because he has only just come on to it and to be fair within months of him arriving this piece of legislation has arrived. But the industry has been waiting and waiting and waiting for this bill to make it to this House. The Minister referenced the working group report. I have got it in my hands here. It was delivered in October 2015.This piece of legislation is absolutely vital to ensuring the strong future for the racing industry and sports codes that the Minister pointed out. But this legislation if the Government gave it any priority should have been through this House a lot earlier. Actually if the Government had done its job properly it would have been passed by now giving the racing industry and the sporting codes the ability to get the revenue that this legislation promises to be able to get. The fact that it has taken so long for this piece of legislation to get here has not been lost on the racing industry. I know it is an industry that the current Government claims to be 100 percent behind most of the time but when I am speaking to people in the industry—and in the sporting area—they are frustrated that this has not happened.There are some concerns that we do have with the bill. There is quite a lot of regulation-making power within this bill. I will put the Minister out of his misery; we are going to support it but we will use the select committee process to find out how exactly the Government and the racing board intend to use that regulation-making power. It does go to the day-to-day operation of the Racing Board—or the TAB as most people would know it who might be sad and listening or watching tonight—and the kinds of products that it offers. That is one of the concerns that we have as to what kinds of freedoms it might give the Racing Board or the TAB as to those powers. I would like to pay tribute to the Racing Board under the leadership of Glenda Hughes and also John Allen because they have kept the Labour Party right in touch during the whole process before the working party started but also as the working party delivered its report and through the very long and arduous process to get the legislation to this point today.This legislation as the Minister has said will hopefully be able to get the revenue that the racing industry so desperately needs and also the sporting industry. One question that we will have in the select committee is around the sporting codes that do not have a national body at the moment but might have sports betting being offered at the TAB as a result of this legislation. My discussions with the racing board after we got the first draft of this legislation were that if there was a sporting code that does not have a national body but there were bets on that code that would be offered at the TAB then hopefully if they were looking to set up a national body some of the money that came about from revenue from those bets could be put into a trust account to be able to assist that sporting code once it got up and running with a national body. If there were some smaller sports where lots of revenue came in through the TAB because of the bets that might be put on I fear where that money would go. So that is one of the concerns that we have on this side of the House which I think the select committee process will let us have a look at.This piece of legislation as the Minister said will allow a ticket to be clipped of New Zealanders who are betting overseas and will also charge a fee to overseas bookmakers who are taking bets on New Zealand - based events. They would essentially have to pay for the information that the Racing Board will offer them around odds and also other information around races or sports events. The question that we had on this side of the House at the very outset of this process asks what kind of resource is going to be put into enforcement. That was one of the first concerns that I raised with the Racing Board when it came to meet us after this piece of legislation was introduced. I think the select committee process will be the place to do that.But if there are sports bet operators overseas who flout the rules and still take bets on New Zealand races or sporting events and do not pay their fee that they should be under this legislation my question to the Minister is: what kinds of powers will our Government have will New Zealand have to ensure that that revenue that should be coming to New Zealand actually gets to those racing codes whether it be the trots harness racing thoroughbred dogs or one of the sporting codes that the revenue might be due to? How are we going to make sure that that money gets to those people so it is getting to the grassroots level? Enforcement I think is going to be one of the big issues that the select committee will look at.I do not want to dwell too much longer because we are supporting this piece of legislation at first reading but there are a number of issues as I have set out. The Labour Party will be wanting answers from the Government to clarify its position that this piece of legislation will be effective. If it is and we do collect the kind of revenue that the Government says this piece of legislation can then that will make a big difference to racing clubs around the country to sporting clubs around the country to make sure some of that revenue feeds down to the grassroots. That is what this should be.The other sad thing about this legislation taking so long to get here—and this will be my final point—is that it has really stopped a big debate in the racing industry about where it should be heading because of the fact that it has not had any certainty around guaranteed revenue in the industry. It has stopped conversations in small race clubs around the country that should have been had some time ago. I think that is sad because I think options that were available to some racing clubs around the country that owned courses that were difficult and expensive to maintain may now have gone because the revenue has not been collected. I think that is one of the very sad things that has happened as a result of this piece of legislation taking so long to get here.