Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): This is a very dark day for this Parliament and for our democracy. It's the darkest day since the passage back in 2007 by the same three parties opposite of that vile Electoral Finance Act which I think cost them the 2008 general election. It's a very dark day for the Labour Party New Zealand First and especially for the Green Party who will never again have any right to lecture the rest of us in this House from that higher moral plane that they so frequently adopt because if they try to do so as a result of their abominable decision today they will have no credibility whatsoever. Today they have sold their collective soul to the devil. Today they leave a permanent stain on the legacy of the Green Party.In the committee stage of this debate the National MPs including myself put forward numerous amendments to try to improve this bill to mitigate against its worst effects and no one other than Minister Little even engaged—not one speaker from those parties other than the Minister—and none of those amendments were adopted or even considered. So this bill remains in its worst-possible form. Draconian fundamentally undemocratic legislation that undermines the independence integrity and responsibility to our electorates of each one of us as MPs is being inflicted on the electorate today with no mandate no public demand or support and no real majority because we know that the Greens and most of the Labour MPs despise this bill as much as we do.So let's get an indication from the Labour members opposite. Who amongst them is proud of this bill?Kiritapu Allan: I am.Hon TIM MACINDOE: So Kiri Allan is happy to go on the record and yet she took no call at all during the committee stage. Let me ask the same question of the Greens: who in the Green Party is proud of this bill? Or were they humiliated by the despicable disingenuous speech of Winston Peters today especially when he misrepresented the fine tradition of Jeanette Fitzsimons and the late Rod Donald two very honourable members. I assume New Zealand First members wouldn't dare to reveal their true feelings about this bill because if they did they would almost certainly become the first MPs to fall victim to its odious provisions for upsetting He Who Must Be Obeyed". And while I am deeply deeply disappointed in them for failing to resist this abomination I do not want to see this bill ever utilised so I won't add to their public shame and humiliation.They didn't take a single call during the committee stage and those parties opposite are clearly swallowing a repulsive deceased rodent at the behest of one minor party which didn't campaign on this issue in 2017 and didn't win a seat in that election. In fact it's not even one party; it's one paranoid man with a history of inconsistency of unfair treatment of his own MPs and of adopting more positions on issues than I've had hot dinners. History suggests that if this bill is ever utilised to secure the expulsion of an MP it will be somebody from the New Zealand First Party and almost certainly it will be because that MP has stuck to what he or she understands the policies of that party to be while the bill's architect Mr Peters has yet again changed his position on an issue for reasons of expediency or for his own political advantage and that will highlight just what a disgraceful sham this bill is.Ultimately Oppositions cannot stop odious legislation from being passed when a Government has the numbers but make no mistake: there is a majority against this bill in this House. So today Labour New Zealand First and Green MPs are all in this together and they must ask themselves whether abandoning their principles and compromising our democracy is justified in the name of a minor party leader's paranoia and dubious coalition cohesion. It's a day of shame for them all. I'm so proud to have resisted this despicable measure at every opportunity I feel contempt for those who are enacting it and I look forward to the day when I can help a more principled Government to vote for its repeal. That cannot come soon enough and today I invoke those fine words of our national anthem: may God defend New Zealand."