Andersen GinnyLOCAL ELECTORAL MATTERS BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 3 May.VIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): E Te Māngai thank you for letting the debate resume on the first reading of the Local Electoral Matters Bill. This bill enables a greater degree of civic participation in local elections which is always a good thing. This bill gives authorities—local authorities—the ability to decide how they wish to best engage with their voters and that's always a good thing.Under the current law under the Local Electoral Act there are two main forms of voting that currently occur and those are postal voting and the polling booth but the one we know the best probably in local areas is postal voting. There's a bit of a reality check in that space in terms of how very low voter turnout is particularly with postal voting. Largely some of the barriers that are put in place with the requirement to vote by post prevent quite significant sectors of our communities from being actively engaged in some of the decisions that affect their daily lives: the time it takes to actually receive the letter in the mail to read it through and more importantly to actually post it. I recall last local election I actually drove around with my completed voting forms on the front seat of my car for about two weeks while I was looking around for a postbox in between driving. I don't know whether it's because the National Government got rid of them all but I couldn't find a postbox where there'd been one previously—or the fact that the post only came three days a week.But it's those barriers in terms of getting people to vote that this bill looks at alleviating. It's the fact that we're able to actually have the possibility of online voting being trialled in a safe and controlled way that is quite exciting in this piece of legislation.Now there's always a risk involved when people are attempting to use online methods for voting and this has been taken into consideration. There've been examples—I know recently of Australia—where the security of data or the way that the online voting has occurred has been compromised so it's always very important if we're introducing new methods of voting to be able to make sure those systems are robust and that people have faith that their voting is being counted and being done in a legitimate manner.This bill enables small sections to be trialled to give local authorities the confidence that the systems that they're using are able to be relied upon. Through the enabling of this legislation small groups can be targeted. So you could choose to be just looking at those who are overseas or just voters who may be disabled who cannot get to the polling booth or be able to complete forms or maybe even it may be trialled through our younger people who are not engaging as much through postal voting.This mechanism provides an ability to limit the risks of trialling a new voting method. The addition to doing this as well is that it also gives local authorities access to data to find out who is actually responding and by holding that data which would be verified through a birth date that means that they can use that data to best engage with those populations who they are not seeing coming forward during local elections. It's always important to increase voter turnout and some of the lowest turnout groups in communities are Māori Pasifika and young people.There's sort of an irony in that space particularly with regard to young people. When I think of some of the initiatives that are currently happening within Hutt South that the council is seeking to engage with it's those initiatives that the next generation will be using the most. They are the ones that will be using our roads they are the ones that will be benefiting from local projects like RiverLink which looks to open up the Hutt River to introduce flood protection and to put in better traffic mechanisms like the Melling Link to enable more free-flowing traffic around those areas. It is the younger people in our communities that will be using those facilities into the future and so it's within our best interests to make sure that what we are building what is happening reflects the needs and the wants of those people that will be using those facilities.So by having online voting and having a mechanism where everybody has the opportunity of engaging far more readily with their local authorities we increase our chances of building a future New Zealand that meets the daily needs of our communities and that's got to be a good thing.When I look also at how we best engage with voters and how we get the best turnout possible when you look at the recent general election there was a new ability there for voters to enrol and vote at the same time and we did see a real increase in terms of voter turnout in younger people. So again by removing barriers—by making voting more accessible more easy and straightforward—we are always going to increase the levels of voter participation and that has to be a good thing for New Zealand.I would just like to conclude by wrapping up. There's one piece of information that I read that really interested me and it was that in 2016 a post-election voter awareness survey conducted by Auckland Council saw that 74 percent of respondents said they would prefer online voting to postal voting and the results when they were broken down by age group went across all age categories. So there is a real desire within New Zealand for an increased ability for online voting to happen far more readily and it's encouraging to see that we have a piece of legislation here that enables that to happen in a way where local authorities have the ability to control how that is rolled out and to make sure that that data is kept safe as required.This will largely benefit as I've said the next generation and the key point that I really believe in is that it's so important that communities help shape the key amenities that they will be using for the future. That's how we get smarter roads that's how we get parks that people use and that's how we get facilities and libraries that are meeting the needs of our people. We do that through voter engagement through people saying what they want and councils taking that into consideration when they make changes and use ratepayers' money.I would like to commend this bill to the House and I congratulate the Minister on taking a bold step in enabling local authorities to better engage with people and to build a country where everybody has the opportunity of using facilities they need. I commend this bill to the House.