Tolley Anne: Appointments — Representation Commission 
Tolley Anne: Appointments — Representation Commission 
[Volume:635;Page:6655] 
ANNE TOLLEY (National—East Coast) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the motions on the Order Paper today. This process of course as the Minister has just said is required under the Electoral Act. The Representation Commission is known colloquially I guess by MPs and the public as the boundaries commission. There is a huge amount of interest taken in the work of that commission both here in Parliament by MPs because we are directly affected by it and of course by the wider general public who are also affected by it. It determines the electorate they can vote in and the member of Parliament they can support or elect. 
The commission is charged with the responsibility of setting down the boundaries for the next general election and by law we are required to have two representatives nominated—one nominated by the Government and one nominated by the Opposition. There is also a requirement for two Maori reps one from the Government and one from the Opposition. When people are nominated to the commission political knowledge and experience are extremely useful to commission members. Although at all times they must be detached from the political process if they have some knowledge of how it works it makes their job easier. 
When forming electoral boundaries commissioners have to take many factors into consideration. Communities of interest are particularly relevant and in general those communities that have those interests in common form a more cohesive electorate. For an MP to be able to cover an electorate or more important—to put it the other way around—for members of the public to be able to readily access their elected representatives is significant in the process. I want to spend a bit of time on that in the discussion here tonight. 
My electorate the East Coast is I think the largest geographical area for an electorate in the North Island. My colleague Shane Ardern and I debate as to who has the larger electorate but they are both considerable. Of course there are some extremely large ones in the South Island. It makes it extremely difficult for an MP to adequately cover the territory. My colleague here Phil Heatley who represents an electorate up in the Northland area agrees that it makes it very difficult for members of the public to be able to pop along to their local MP when they have a problem or issue. 
Phil Heatley 
: And I have to run Housing New Zealand. 
ANNE TOLLEY 
: Ha ha! I think that particularly in rural areas where we are seeing a decline in population the concern is that the commission takes into account the practicality of the size of some of those electorates. My electorate the East Coast has two quite distinct population bases. The larger of course is Gisborne but there is also the growing town of Whakatane. That means one has to spread oneself across a large area and the difficulty that members of the public have expressed to me is that one MP can be in one place at only one time. That makes it hard for MPs to give adequate service to their populations. So when commission members come to look at those areas where in particular the rural population is declining I ask them to pay attention to the practicality of geographical size in relation to the communities of interest those populations have. 
A detailed knowledge of each electorate on the part of commission members would also be of valuable service. Much of the work they do is technical and we rely on their having accurate demographic data. Again I come back to areas like mine. I was talking to someone who had been involved in census collection over a number of years who is absolutely adamant that on the last census night there were at least a thousand people from the local area missed from the statistics. They were up alleyways out in the bush or for various reasons did not want the State to know that more than one or two people were living in their houses. There are a whole variety of reasons why we do not get an accurate count. Again we need the members of the commission to have an understanding of some of the communities in these electorates when they come to set the new boundaries. 
I think the members of the commission need to understand political processes as part of looking at how electorates function. Both the Opposition’s nominations I am confident have the experience and knowledge to contribute admirably to the process. Mr John McEnteer was first appointed by National in 1997. He is well respected and he brings to the process that good ongoing understanding of what is happening with population movements and the developments of electorates. 
The Hon Roger Sowry a former colleague is of course of the highest integrity and he has extensive experience in business politics and community service. He was elected as an electorate MP for Kapiti in 1990 and in 1996 became a list MP so he has that varied knowledge of the work of MPs. He has also been a junior whip a senior whip a Minister of very large-spending departments—the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Work and Income—and he has also been the deputy leader of the National Party. His political experience covers a wide range of knowledge. 
Phil Heatley 
: He reached giddy heights. 
ANNE TOLLEY 
: “He reached giddy heights.” my colleague to my left says. I do not want to comment on the Government’s appointments Mr Caygill and Whetumarama Wereta. The latter is unknown to me but both are very experienced in this process. My position is that the Government side should appoint its representatives and we of the Opposition should appoint ours. So I commend Mr John McEnteer and the Hon Roger Sowry to the House as Opposition representatives on the Representation Commission.