Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): As others have said I—on behalf of the Green Party—say that this is a sad day for us as a House of Representatives and as a nation who prides itself in its democracy. This is a nation that has had many firsts when it comes to representation. We've got one of the longest-standing Houses of Representatives in the democratic world. We are the nation that gave women the vote first. But it seems like we have a long way to go.We've had two speeches representing two major political parties who have been fortunate enough—and it is a privilege—to have formed and led Governments in this country each naming each other for breaches of the Cabinet Manual and those breaches are terrifying in this context because they relate back to the interaction of Government Ministers—decision makers who are meant to represent the people of New Zealand—and big-money funders.So we've had the SkyCity deal the Saudi sheep scandal; Oravida; last term we had cameras on boats delayed and that was another leaked email scandal of a Minister. We've had just over the past week the logging lobby and landlords as just a few of the big-money donors that we as members of Parliament can remember within our political life having had a greater influence on decisions of Government allegedly than ordinary people who have just one vote.Chris Bishop: Careful about your privilege here. SkyCity did not donate in relation to what you're talking about. You should be careful of what you say.GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: Cool. So moving on ha ha! We actually do have now—fortunate and privileged as a nation—a New Zealand - based study for the first time done at Victoria University just across the road by Lisa Marriott and Max Rashbrooke into the way that political lobbies and political donations work in this country. They interviewed as academics hundreds of people who've had interactions with all of us—in terms of our political parties and not individuals—and ex-MPs and ex-Ministers. To quote Max Rashbrooke in his findings he says—and this is not my opinion; this is a quote of one of the researchers who's done this seminal piece of work for the first time into how lobbyists and donations work in this county—It gives a remarkable level of access to political donors with their money."—remarkable access. That is based on what is detailed in the report as lunches conversations being able to pick up the phone having personal relationships with Ministers—it doesn't go into ordinary members of Parliament because we don't make those decisions per se but I imagine that probably happens also. The scary bit is Cabinet Ministers right?So we as Greens say that since we know that this seems to happen we all agree across this House that it's terrible if it happens that we all hate it that we all know that it undermines democracy and that democracy is a fundamental human right it's one that underpins all the other rights all the other interests as members of the public. Whether it's workers' rights indigenous rights women's rights or environmental protections democracy is the one that we are meant to uphold in order to know that all of those interests are in fact represented. So why are we still working within a system that is so weak that lacks transparency and proper regulation that would guarantee that our democracy is not dependent on the character of the particular Minister who happens to be holding that position at the time or human error per se but has the kind of strong protections and regulations around it that we see elsewhere?The Money for Something report that I've been quoting from actually found that "New Zealand is increasingly an outlier among developed countries" due to our weak regulations of political donations. There is little transparency. They recommended $1500—that was in my strengthening democracy member's bill. I am happy to say that after political donations were said not to be a priority last term this term we did get to a point where we did limit them to at least a lower amount than $15000 which they were but $1500 is where these guys landed and it's where the Green Party landed. Two-thirds of developed nations limit large donations; we don't have any limit. Given that big donations gain remarkable levels of access shouldn't we limit big donations and therefore that access that we're all so worried about in this House and that we've so condemned Stuart Nash for rightly? Three-quarters almost of New Zealanders distrust our political system based on our political donations rules. Two-thirds of New Zealanders want donations capped at $10000 to $15000. And in the research it was found that all things being equal more money more donations did result in more votes. So the one-vote-per-person democracy that we pride ourselves on is under threat by this kind of conduct and it seems like its protections are just based on some kind of gentlemen's agreement right now. We're an outlier and we can do more. There's research here and elsewhere in the world that says we should be doing more. My concern is that substantively we can see clearly today that our democracy has been undermined but that also there's that intangible harm that every time there's a scandal like this whether it's true or not people lose interest and trust in democracy. They stop paying attention. They stop feeling heard or represented or included. They don't feel like there's any point. And when that happens they stop voting. And when that happens can we proclaim a democracy if we're not only excluding people based on their ability to buy influence on the free market but also just their interest because they don't trust the system anymore?If they don't trust the system anymore because every second week we've got a scandal that we all stand up and admonish it doesn't matter anymore whether we fire the Minister or not. Because those fundamental rights of those who can't afford to donate big money their votes are gone too—their interests in terms of being renters being workers being indigenous being from other marginalised communities that we know have a lower ability to donate. It does mean that it's a sad day for our democracy whether or not any of what's been hurled across the House today is true. But we as Greens point to systems change to restore that trust to restore transparency and to protect the fundamental right of every New Zealander to a functioning inclusive democracy."