Barry MaggieHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you Madam Chair. I rise I suppose with pleasure—is that the word?—to talk about this bill and in particular new clause 7. I was leafing through this terribly misnamed bill—I mean it's a paltry thing at four pages and yet the enormous influence that it's going to have on the changing future of New Zealand's Parliament and its ability to represent the people is just an extraordinary thing.We have spent a great deal of time—11 hours as the Hon Dr Nick Smith said—on this particular element and we've looked at a number of ways to try and improve this awful piece of work. It is not supported of course on this side of the House. It is a complete disgrace that the Greens could not get to their feet and give even a single call. What a bunch of wimps. What an extraordinary—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! [Interruption] Order! This debate has actually been conducted with some decorum and I'd like to continue that way. Also I'd like to bring the member to order in that I've already said to the committee that we don't want repetition. This is a very narrow clause and it's about the Gazette notice and I would ask the member to confine her speech to those specific issues. Thank you.Hon MAGGIE BARRY: Certainly Madam Chair; thank you. I guess we do get carried away sometimes because we are so exercised about this bill. I think the Gazette notice which is one of the elements that has been proposed in this new clause 7 is the bare minimum.I stand for the North Shore. I have been an elected representative there since 2011. I am very well aware of the strong depth of feeling that my electorate have. If I for example as a member decided to cross the floor on a particular piece of legislation for example as Labour has done with Rino Tirikatene with Damien O'Connor—the idea that a Labour leader would then evict that person from Parliament because they exercised their conscience is a clear example of where this bill could head. So how would I for example go back to my electorate and say that I was not allowed to cross the floor to exercise not only perhaps my own conscience but also the will of my electorate—the people who had bothered to go out and vote the people who are exercised by the democratic process and want to continue to be able to do so.Under the law as it stands—this proposed law which tragically looks likely to go through—there will be no solid information to my own electorate as to what reasons there might have been for my leader to expel me. So how would I go about explaining it? A Gazette notice which has been proposed here in new clause 7 would certainly give the name of the leader of the party because I think the notion that there's some two-thirds vote and somehow it's the will of the caucus is a nonsense; it is about the leader and that leader needs to stand up and be accountable. But also to understand the reasons and the rationale behind it because we do live in a functioning democracy—or we will until this bill is passed—and until it is at the state where it is under enormous threat I think it's extremely important that the voters the people that put us all here to some extent or another know and understand exactly what's gone on in this place.We are trying to be more transparent. We publicise and make sure that our select committee hearings are being heard. We make sure that we travel the country to hear people who are submitting. I'm not quite sure of the ratings for the parliamentary Chamber on an afternoon such as this. They may not be enormous but none the less it's the quality of the engagement that we focus on and the transparency and accessibility of the people of New Zealand to this Parliament. So the idea that there would not be a publicly demonstrated and explained in some detail gazetted notice as to the name of the party leader and the details for the reason for the vacancy—because having a by-election for no given solid reason will have enormous backlash effect I believe. I don't know how my electorate would behave—I suspect quite badly—and I think that they would probably take that out on the leader of the party that dared to expel unless the reasons of course were very good.We have heard the Hon Nick Smith demonstrate that in Zimbabwe there were three occasions: where a member had the temerity to order a press conference; where there were allegations of corruption; and there was a further one as well—oh yes the whip's advice was not followed. Now I'm sure that if anyone on our side didn't follow Barbara Kuriger's advice we would feel the full wrath of the party caucus and the whip discipline—Barbara Kuriger: That's right.Hon MAGGIE BARRY: That's right. She smiles but it's a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and I think the idea that whip has control of what goes on in a disciplined way is important. That would be under threat with this bill.