Smith Nick: Electoral Matters Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Electoral Matters Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17252] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I want Parliament to know exactly what this Associate Minister of Justice is asking us to do. In the most sensitive area of law electoral law the Government is going to cheat on the rules and late in the process without any public process introduce a sneaky dirty Supplementary Order Paper to change one of the most important parts of election campaigning—that is election hoardings. I tell Mr Barker that when he abuses parliamentary process and runs around sneakily with a Supplementary Order Paper that most New Zealanders would find offensive I make no apology at all for letting the public know the way in which this Labour Party Government will pull off an electoral rort. 
The Government is saying here that there is one set of rules for everybody else when it comes to the Resource Management Act and signage but that when it comes to Parliament we will write the rules to suit ourselves. [ 
Interruption 
] I say to Mr Franks that if a local council wants to put up a hoarding to advertise a school gala then it has to comply with the Resource Management Act. That will not be the case if one is a political candidate. Why do we want to have special rules just for ourselves? More important why is Mr Barker not prepared to subject his Supplementary Order Paper 310 to a public submission process? This Supplementary Order Paper says that when it comes to MPs— 
Hon Rick Barker 
: You asked for it. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well let us just deal with that. Let me read what the Justice and Electoral Committee report states: “We encourage the Minister to address guidelines …”. Are these guidelines? No they are new law. This is special law—not guidelines for local authorities. The Supplementary Order Paper states that all citizens in New Zealand have to comply with the Resource Management Act except if they are parliamentary candidates. If the Minister is genuine in representing this measure as being part of special provisions for elections then why does it not apply to local elections? We have just had elections for district health boards and for councils. Why does it not apply to them? 
Darren Hughes 
: It’s for political parties in general elections. They cover the whole country. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Darren Hughes the “Albert Einstein” of the Labour Party says it is because local council candidates stand for only one district where there are rules. Well that is not so in the case of the Wellington Regional Council or the Auckland Regional Council where a candidate may be standing in seven or eight districts. Neither is it the case if one is standing for a district health board. That argument does not stand up. 
The reason that Rick Barker is passing this special set of rules now without any select committee process is that he wants to rig the election for the Labour Party. Let us see how far it goes. Why is it necessary to regulate the colour of election hoardings? Is there anything in the committee’s recommendations on guidelines that says it is proper for Mr Rick Barker and his 19 Cabinet colleagues to regulate the colour of election hoardings? Mr Barker is saying that it would be quite permissible under the Supplementary Order Paper for Cabinet to decide that we could have red election hoardings only. That would be the sort of dirty trick that Rick Barker would try to pull off. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Read the Supplementary Order Paper! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I have read the Supplementary Order Paper. I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. There is a longstanding convention and I would have expected you to step in and make the point by now that the Minister in the chair does not object because of his advantage with regard to the microphone. He has done it at least eight times. When will you bring the Committee to order? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I was aware of that and if the member had observed what I was doing he would have seen that I had my finger on the mike so that the Minister could not be heard. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: So that is a new Standing Order? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No I am just saying that I had my finger on the button. 
Simon Power 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Regardless of whether you have the finger on the button that controls the microphone that is placed in front of the Minister Standing Orders and Speakers’ rulings remain. In fact you have ruled from that Chair on a number of occasions in recent weeks that the Minister sitting to the right of you may not interject while a member is on his or her feet. Whether those interjections are amplified is not the point; the point is that the Minister sits in a position of advantage and it is entirely improper for that Minister to take advantage of that positioning to interject on members who have the call. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member has made his point. I did call the Minister to order and maybe I should have done so earlier. The member is correct. It is a convention that Ministers do not take advantage of a live microphone. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I continue with the absolute cheat going on in Parliament in respect of this Supplementary Order Paper and the regulation of election hoardings. The Minister says it is all hunky-dory because the Regulations Review Committee can review the regulations that allow him to tell us that we all have to have red election hoardings. Well let us be real. What is the average time it takes the Regulations Review Committee to deal with such a complaint? The average period of time is 18 months which would be well after the fact that he had cheated himself into winning another election. It is a very poor check. It would be outrageous for Parliament to pass law and say that even if it is bad law it is OK because the Regulations Review Committee can review it.