Cosgrove ClaytonHon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour): I rise to make a small contribution in respect of this bill. I have to stand up firstly and address Mr Bishop—through you Mr Assistant Speaker—because the only people in New Zealand who do not understand what the concept of fairness is are Tories. That guy got up and wanted the House to sort of explain to him—he did not quite understand what the notion of fairness was. He is not a bad bloke but I have got to say it does not surprise me given his political allegiance and given his political history that after many years in the National Party he does not understand what the concept of fairness is. I say to him that he may well want to go out and seek advice from others. There are plenty of colleagues on this side of the House who could elucidate and provide a definition but you do not need to get out the Oxford English Dictionary or pretend that it is sort of a Rotarians debate or that you are back at school in the debating club to work out what fairness is. Fairness in respect of this bill—fairness in respect of this bill—would be to allow people to enrol to vote on election day if you believe it is fair that you want to maximise the ability of the populace to participate in the democratic process. If you believe that you want those 27000-plus people who voted at the last election but were disallowed from participating—not because they were fraudulent but simply because they had not enrolled—then there is a definition Mr Bishop of fairness. If though like the Government which has never explained its position—it has never explained what the difference is between allowing people to enrol 24 hours prior to polling day and allowing them to enrol right up to and including polling day where after they have enrolled and after they have voted if they have done something nefarious or they have acted in a fraudulent way or they cannot prove their identity which would be nigh impossible in New Zealand you could then of course disallow their vote in the normal way. The National Party in Government has never explained why it will not allow this. I think I may be right that going back quite a few years—I think it may have been in the 1970s—for some particular reason we had to enrol some days a week or I think at some point possibly a month before the election. Then a Government of whichever party got a bit smarter and said OK this is nuts. We actually want to encourage participation." and it grew and grew to the day before. The question the National Government has never answered—and a member might take a call and do it today—is why it will not acquiesce and allow people to maximise their position to vote in the process. Well I think there is an answer to that because there is a sector of society that the National members—perhaps those who like Mr Bishop do not understand the concept of fairness. It is that sort of quartile in the polls that you know he is trying to attract. Of course those members want to attract only certain folk to the polls to vote for them—to vote for them. And yes I concede it is harder to get working folks out on polling day because actually most of them are working. It is harder to motivate some individuals. So I would have thought it was incumbent on every member of this House to make it as easy as possible for people to exercise their democratic right. Even if that means they might vote against my party they should still have the right to do that and we should not put any barrier in their way as long as they act legitimately. So I ask Mr Bishop Mr Muller or Mr Mark Mitchell the "Three Amigos" up the back there which is quite an interesting sight—a Minister and two backbenchers. I do not know whether the plot is on whether the numbers are being done or whether commiseration is being handed out to somebody somewhere or other. We waited with bated breath to find that out. But I just say to Mr Bishop that the definition of fairness is giving people a fair go and giving them every opportunity in this case to participate in the process. That is fair. Whether you are the blue party the red party or whatever party encouraging your opponents in terms of voters and your supporters and anybody else to get out there—I actually personally favour a compulsory vote like the Australians have because I think people should stump up. We look at the plaques around the wall here. Men and women died in order to give people the ability to vote in our democracy. Many folks around the world do not have that privilege and I personally would favour a compulsory vote. But the definition of fairness is to not put barriers in people's way so that only a few—those who have the Range Rover shall we say and can drive themselves the polls—are motivated to vote. So I look forward if there is a speech left to having somebody in the National Government telling us and giving us the definition of what they believe fairness is to help Mr Bishop out."