Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I thought I should take a call on this motion as someone who has had a bit of experience of the issue and some time to reflect on it. I spent longer than most as the sole member of a political party in this House and felt the specified party provisions keenly and what they meant was that I was sometimes excluded from debate but often was very grateful to the generosity and public spiritedness I guess of fellow members of the House who did allow me to participate in debates such as the current Leader of the House who was also then the Leader of the House and allowed me as ACT leader to participate in ministerial statements. But there were two competing principles that had to be weighed and I think were well balanced in those circumstances—that are not being well balanced by this motion. Those principles were that while the Standing Orders—I think it's 107(a)—do say that each party should be represented in each debate where possible it's also critical to maintain the principle of proportionality in the way that New Zealanders who vote are spoken for or represented in this House.Now the provisions that are being made by this amendment in terms of speaking on a ministerial statement I think are very sensible. They mean that with the minimal distortion of proportionality the Māori Party will be able to speak on ministerial statements—not so the provisions that are being made for the Prime Minister's and Budget statements. Those changes under this motion—what they will mean—are that the Māori Party which already gets to speak will be given additional speaking time and so it actually goes further than it needs to in distorting proportionality to give each member a say. For that reason ACT can't support the motion. It does not balance the twin objectives of giving each party that through the Electoral Act is elected to this House a say in a debate but also making sure that all the people that didn't vote for that particular party get their proportional representation.I have to say given the lack of logic behind the motion one has to wonder about some of the motivations and the politics. I wonder if the Green Party have considered what Labour's motivations are in bringing a motion that really favours the Māori Party. I wonder if they are thinking about future coalition negotiations and if the Green Party have thought about what that might mean for their prospects. I wonder if the winners of six of the seven Māori seats who are members of the Labour Party have thought about the fact that to the extent they're concerned about the materiality of this motion they are actually giving up speaking time to people who have actually tried to take their seats off them and will be trying to do it again in 2½ years' time. Those are the sorts of questions about the politics.No doubt pretty soon a representative of the Māori Party will get up and assert that being mana whenua it's all the more important that they are able to speak. But I think it's important also to recognise that 17 percent of New Zealand identify as Māori; 1.5 percent voted for Te Paati Māori. And so the question is not Is this about more Māori representation?"; it's about whether Māori representation comes from a particular party that is being advantaged by this motion more than is necessary to achieve the objective that I completely agree with and have benefited from: that everybody who through the Electoral Act gets to this House should be able to have their party's view put across in the debate.So ACT would like to tautoko the part of the motion that allows the Māori Party to speak on ministerial statements. That is the right thing to do and something that's effectively been done in previous Parliaments. It's a wonder that the Standing Orders Committee last term didn't actually make that automatic but the extension of speaking time on Prime Minister's statements and Budget debates actually is against proportionality and therefore wrong. We should oppose it and maybe wonder why Labour is so eager to put it in place. Thank you Mr Speaker."