Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. I am disgusted—disgusted—with what we are seeing tonight which is National members who care more about the electoral roll than about New Zealanders voting. At a time when we have got the lowest voting in absolute generations and when the second-biggest party in this Parliament would be did not vote at the last election" National is voting against making it easier to vote. I am disgusted with the arguments we have heard tonight because they are all in electoral and political self-interest not in the national interest. I am rising to support this bill but disgusted with what we are seeing tonight. Outside this Chamber is a giant painting of the Glorious Revolution. In the middle of this Table is the Mace the symbol of when once upon a time the Speaker's representative of Parliament in the UK had his head lopped off for exercising the right to vote. At a time when we know throughout history and even today people are beaten and killed trying to exercise the right to vote National wants to make it harder for 27000 Kiwis to exercise their right to play their part in the democratic process.I want to say thank you to Meka Whaitiri for putting this bill to Parliament. I want to say thank you for standing up for the 27000 Kiwis who last election went to the ballot box cast their vote filled in the forms for a special vote but then got a letter in the mail from the Electoral Commission saying: "I'm sorry your vote didn't count." Can you imagine how that would feel? It may be the first time in your life that you have gone to a ballot booth to vote and then you get that letter in the mail. No wonder so many people are not voting. No wonder so many people will not vote again. This bill is about making it easier. It is about making it easier for Māori when we know that in the Māori electorates 3 percent in fact got that letter in the mail because they were turned away from voting. We have a massive voting problem—a massive democratic deficit in New Zealand. We should be discussing how to make it easier not harder and my fear is tonight that because of the National Party we are going to be making it harder.It must have been incredibly hard in the National caucus room to come up with arguments—"How do we argue in Parliament against enfranchising voters?". Well they literally scraped the barrel with their arguments. Mr Naylor came out and said "Well look quite frankly"—and to paraphrase—"if you can't be bothered to enrol you shouldn't deserve to vote." Then Paul Foster-Bell came out and said: "But if you are not on the roll you are not going to get the literature." What literature? All the information about where to vote and the ballot box is all online. That must be the weakest argument I have ever heard for stopping making it easier for people to vote—because they are going to miss out on some literature.Then Mr Bishop came out and said: "Well we need the electoral roll because parties need to be able to send letters outside of the election." We all know what Mr Bishop means—these faux surveys right where political parties use the electoral roll to harvest the contact data of Kiwis. That was the reason blunt and frank from Mr Bishop's own lips. I think that proves if you can argue for the tobacco industry you can argue for almost any issue in this House. What we heard from all the National speakers was that they cared more about "the sanctity and the integrity of the electoral roll" than actually voting. They care more about a bit of paper—the roll—than electors the people of New Zealand who want to cast their ballot. That is why I say I am disgusted without exaggeration.Let us look at the track record. We see in the previous Parliament this Government disenfranchised 10000 New Zealanders currently in prisons from being able to vote. I believe every New Zealander no matter where they are should be able to vote. This is the Government that sacked democratically elected councils in Canterbury. This is the Government that does electoral deals to rort the mixed-member proportional system to get their zombie parties in. This is the Government with the worst ever abuse of the Official Information Act in our country's history and it had the gall to say efficient light bulbs were nanny State. You want to see nanny State? You will see councils being sacked Kiwis disenfranchised and abuses of official information.But it does not have to be this way. I am proud that the Green Party will be voting for this bill. We believe we should be making it easier for Kiwis to vote. We want to see people not go into the booth and cast one vote but vote the next time and the time after. We want them to tell their friends to care about what is happening in their country and exercise their right which we saw people around the world throughout history and even today die to exercise. I believe we can promote voting. I believe we could see civics education in schools. I also believe we should consider lowering the voting age because this democracy is bigger than all of us in this House."