Racing Industry Bill

Thank you, Mr Chair. Well, I was going to ask the Minister in the chair a number of questions, but I see we’ve got a real gambler sitting there now so I won’t bother.

I just wanted to make a couple of points in the committee stage and particularly related to clauses 19 to 27. Those clauses relate to the ownership of racecourses in New Zealand. The original bill came into the House with some pretty, I guess, challenging commentary in those clauses, which effectively meant that the industry could all but confiscate property and transfer it around the country as they wished. Now, the comment I want to make is that I think we’ve got those clauses to a point now where those communities can protect those assets in those communities if they wish to do so.

I think that’s a critical point, because the original bill, effectively, meant that a track in Gore, for example, could be sold and the asset transferred to a track in Auckland. That certainly wasn’t a satisfactory arrangement, because communities of interest have built up—over hundreds of years almost, in some cases—because some of our racing clubs are 160-odd years old, and they’d built up to the point that those communities felt that they were theirs, even though they are, effectively, the property of the racing club, often.

So the intention of the changes to those clauses was to ensure that those assets could be retained in those communities for community use if that community had a desire to do so. The other point about that was that we also wanted to retain a tension in the bill which enabled the industry to rationalise itself in a manner that allowed it to progress and progress well.

I was going to ask the Minister in the chair a question about those tracks. I probably don’t need to do that. So I’ll get on to the second point I wanted to make, and that was about—[Interruption] I don’t want to embarrass the Minister.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Don’t tempt me.

I’m sure he’d be able to answer it, but I’m not going to ask him.

The second point I wanted to make, very quickly, was the appointment of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) board, and there’s been a delay put in place to extend the RITA board’s term. I would have asked the Minister this as well, and I will ask him but he might not want to answer. I’d be very interested to know, if this bill gets through the House, how long it will take to reappoint or to appoint a new board to run the TAB, because I think that’s absolutely a critical appointment in this process. I think it needs to be dealt with urgently, because I think there’s an urgency to get people who understand the gaming industry on that board and get them there as quickly as we can. That’s no criticism of the current RITA board; it’s just, I think, a specific job and I think it urgently needs some attention.

So those were two points I wanted to make just related to the track because I want to be quite clear of our intentions around those tracks and how the Transport and Infrastructure Committee intended that they move forward. I think Parliament has probably accepted that and that’s the manner in which they should move forward. The other point was the reappointment of the RITA board. Thank you, Mr Chair.

Thank you very much. I would like to just highlight the issue around the process for selecting members to the board of the TAB. It’s covered in clause 46A, and what it says is that “The Minister must establish a selection panel for the purpose of making recommendations to the Minister [for] the appointment of members of the governing body” of the TAB. This is something that was substantially changed in the select committee stage, and so this is a new insertion into the bill that we are now, obviously, discussing here today.

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I just want to tell the member that that’s in Part 3, although the purpose of the bill is in Part 1. So you’re being really specific and you should bring that up in Part 3. I’ll hand back to you, and you can speak to this part of the bill.

Yeah. I’m sorry, but I’m just trying to be very specific because I’ve only got one point I really wanted to raise, so—

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Yeah, that’s a point that should be made in Part 3, though—that’s what I’m saying.

Can I—would you like me to continue or not?

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Well, you could continue in terms of Part 1, which includes the purpose. So if you linked what you’re saying—

OK, so just with the purpose, obviously, the purpose statement is around—the bill is about making sure that we’ve got the right process in place for the establishment of a credible board to the TAB and about making sure that we’ve got the right objectives for that organisation and the right level of accountability back to the industry itself through Racing New Zealand. I fully endorse those principles, and I think this bill actually helps to achieve that and get us to that point. So I’ll come back to the point I was just raising before in the next stage.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 516 in the name of the Rt Hon Winston Peters to Part 1 be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to.

Part 1 as amended agreed to.

Part 2 Racing

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 516 in the name of the Rt Hon Winston Peters to Part 2 be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to.

Part 2 as amended agreed to.

Part 3 TAB New Zealand