Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I speak on this bill with an incredibly heavy heart. I've been in Parliament now for nine and a half years and as a blue-green liberal I have had my fair share of battles. I want to say—and I am speaking directly to this commencement clause—what an incredibly sad day for local members of Parliament in New Zealand and for democracy.It is not right for the Minister in the chair Andrew Little to stand and think soft speeches will somehow override the fact that this comes on the back of pieces of legislation like the Electoral Finance Act and the scrapping of the Privy Council. If the member wants to raise Environment Canterbury then we can raise the Auckland District Health Board sacking and the Kaipara District Council bill.The reality is this is different and I would ask all New Zealanders to listen over this week to this debate because here's the nuts of it: if you are a member of Parliament and you stand up as I have done—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Order! Do not bring me into the debate.Hon NIKKI KAYE: If there are members of Parliament in this House that stand up on issues of principle like I did on the issue of mining on Great Barrier Island there will be a large axe hanging over members of Parliament's heads. That is the truth of this bill and that is the sadness. That is the true sadness of this House—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Come back to the substance of clause 2 please.Hon NIKKI KAYE: —and the reason this matters in terms of the bill's commencement is—look at the votes in my electorate in Auckland Central. The reality is I was elected as a local MP with a group of left-wing people that chose to split their vote. That is the reality. There were a range of local issues that they elected me on and they expect me to stand up on those issues. That is the true reality of MMP. So when we debate this commencement clause I want every MP to sit there and think of those issues on which now the balance will shift to the power of political parties.That's why I support the commencement changes that Nick Smith has put forward. This should be considered either in a new term of Parliament or via a referendum because the reality is there are millions of New Zealanders who have been ripped off because they have voted for members of Parliament under a social contract that said that they would be able to stand up with certain rights on local issues and that is why this commencement clause is a very very important debate that we need to have. On this side of the House while we oppose the bill we are doing everything that we can possible for people to say that what Andrew Little and the Government are doing is changing the basic constitutional rights of New Zealanders and that it's wrong and we oppose it. We are fighting very hard for the democratic rights of people who have gone to the ballot paper like in Auckland Central and have voted for certain members of Parliament on their local ability and now the reality is—and that's why we're fighting hard for these commencement clauses and the amendments that Nick Smith is making—that they are getting something very different.And it is real. I have been there as I said before on an issue like mining whereby I stood up and said that I don't support the party. It was a very difficult time. I thought my job might be over but actually 50000 people marched down Queen Street and a number of people still walk across the road to shake my hand to say that You Nikki Kaye changed our policy on that area."CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Relevance please.Hon NIKKI KAYE: The reason I had the ability to do that—and it relates to the commencement—was that—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Just saying the word "commencement" does not actually make this relevant.Hon NIKKI KAYE: —there was a social contract that exists under this term of Parliament and what we're saying is if the Government wants to go to the voters either via a referendum or in the next term of Parliament and change the social contract for every single member of Parliament then do that in the appropriate way. Don't do that by an act of stealth in the New Zealand Parliament which doesn't have the full support of all political parties.In fact I want to quote Sue Bradford on this because it does relate to what the mandate is and whether this commencement clause should be changed. She said this is a parlous state of democracy and that it is a sad day for New Zealanders. The reason she said that is because she believes that the Green Party don't actually need to vote for this piece of legislation and so it comes back to what my learned colleague the Hon Dr Nick Smith—[Time expired]"