Little AndrewELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): I move That the Electoral Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. I'm heartened by the speeches from the members opposite in the last matter the House considered because the great celebration of democracy that they expressed in their speeches actually lies at the heart of this bill. This bill is about enhancing our democracy. It is about—to use the title of a previous piece of legislation we enacted last year—electoral integrity. It brings fairness to voting across the board. So at the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill will be reported to the House by 16 December 2019.This bill as I said will enhance our electoral system by making changes to make it easier to vote. So this bill does a number of things that will help New Zealanders' voting experience. It is an obligation on this House when it is considering electoral law and the laws governing people's right to vote to make sure that we maximise the ability and the opportunity for people to vote. That means enrolling to vote because that is of course the starting point and notwithstanding the somewhat kind of mandatory requirement to enrol to vote actually it's something that a lot of people miss out on. They don't get round to it or they leave it till too late and we had the situation in 2017 where 19000 people turned up to vote on election day—on the Saturday that was the nominated designated election day—and had not enrolled and they could not vote. They actually did vote but their votes didn't count. Here's the thing; here's the rub: in the advance voting period a whole bunch of other people—thousands of people—who when they turned up to the voting booth had not enrolled were able to both enrol and vote. I've seen some public comments from members opposite who seem to be horrified at this bill making it easier for people to cast their vote by enrolling and voting at the same time not just in the advance voting period but on voting day itself. That's what this bill does. Now I am sure I misread what I have seen in the newspapers and online. I am sure that after the speeches we've heard this afternoon in this House members will be leaping up to say That's right Minister of Justice. You've got it right. This is just what we need to add fairness to our voting system and to make sure that every voter is treated fairly." because you see here's the other thing: as we head into the 2020 general election—which is very important for all of New Zealand—whereas in the 2017 general election we saw 47 percent of voters casting their vote ahead of the designated election day we are now projecting that up to 65 percent of voters will cast their vote in the advance voting period leaving 35 percent to cast their vote on election day. So it is no longer defensible to have one rule for the 65 percent who vote before the designated election day and a separate rule for the 35 percent who vote on election day. I am pretty sure given the speeches we've heard this afternoon that members opposite will of course have to say that that's right because if a voting system is going to be credible and if it has integrity we cannot have different rules for different voters depending on what day they vote. That is indefensible. That is wrong. So this bill seeks to remedy that particular mischief. It does other things as well. It actually enables the Electoral Commission to put polling booths in places where currently they cannot. So places that sell liquor on election day like supermarkets cannot be used for voting and yet actually on Saturdays which is still the designated voting day that is where hundreds of thousands of people go because doing your grocery shopping on a Saturday is a pretty common thing for most Kiwis to do. So why wouldn't we make it easier for them to vote by shifting voting booths to where they are in their hundreds of thousands? Of course people will turn up to the school hall—and if you have kids at the particular school you'll be used to it but a lot of people aren't—and of course we will still have voting booths in the community halls but not a lot of people go to community halls in their routine weekly endeavours these days. But they do go to the supermarket so why wouldn't we make it easier for voters to be able to cast their vote and do so at a supermarket or at a place that would sell liquor? Now there is a restraint on that. It has to be a place that even though it sells liquor liquor cannot be consumed there which makes it ideal for malls and supermarkets and the like. So this bill is about enhancing our democracy. It makes it easier for voters to enrol and also to vote. I did hear an argument in the public dispatches and I don't know whether it came from a member opposite. I'm pretty sure after I've heard the speeches this afternoon that it wouldn't have done but I did hear an argument that said "Well what is it that Labour's trying to get? If they're trying to introduce this fairness measure are they trying to get more people to vote?" as if it was something that was wrong. It was as if the system that we've got at the moment that is shutting people out—19000 people in 2017—from casting their democratic right was somehow OK and of course it's not. We have to remedy that and that's what this bill does. So I think it is great that we are getting to grips with modern changes in people's patterns of life. This is the way people are—they don't get round to enrolling. I mean it doesn't help of course that with the prisoner voting legislation that the previous Government passed some people are not just denied the opportunity to vote but they are struck off the roll completely which is the problem. Dr Duncan Webb: Oh! Hon ANDREW LITTLE: That was a National Party initiative—that was a National Party initiative. The National Party—unfortunately—historically typically did not care about some people's right to vote. I know they've turned the page on that. I know they've turned a new leaf. When you heard them this afternoon it was very clear that this current generation of National MPs have abandoned their historical past and they actually want to enhance democracy and I welcome that. I welcome that. I am so looking forward to the great speeches they are going to give this afternoon because they are going to be amazing—amazing—celebrations of democracy because they are well rehearsed now. They've had a good run at it. Nick Smith's got his blood pressure up. He'll have a great performance this afternoon and that will be very good. So this legislation makes it easier to vote by changing the enrolment and voting processes—particularly for election day—but also by making sure that there are more venues where people can cast their vote. There are a couple of other technical changes too that are in relation to the liquor licensing. As long as the place sells alcohol but you can't consumer it there then that's a place where you can vote but it also has to provide for the counting of votes for those booths because typically they cannot be counted on site. So the bill provides for the Electoral Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer themselves or to mandate others to take the votes that have been cast in the ballot box—under security no doubt—and move them to another place for the counting and I think that will be very helpful as well. The other thing the bill does that is very important is it updates and upgrades the current provisions on handling an emergency—a civil emergency or a weather emergency or call it what you like. There are provisions at the moment but it means that the electoral officer for the particular electorate has to make a variety of decisions and if you have a civil emergency like a weather emergency—a mass flooding or something that disrupts multiple electorates—you've got to line up all the electoral officers in each of those areas to make a decision. This allows the Chief Electoral Officer to make decisions dealing with emergencies that arise that have an impact on people's ability to vote. What it says is that if there is a major emergency that requires perhaps closing voting booths and voting places or shifting them around then the Chief Electoral Officer can do that and there is a consultation process with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. It is not for them to veto it and not for them to make the decision but as a kind of a courtesy at least and to make sure that everybody is plugged in to the fact that when emergencies are of a significant nature and size and changes have to be made then the Chief Electoral Officer will consult those two. It's got to be even-handed it's non-political it's neutral but it means that everybody gets to know what is going on. So it does that. There are a couple of other technical changes in it about pushing out the vote count because if we're going to have enrolment and election on the same day then we need to push out the period in which the returning officers can conduct the vote and make their return of the writ. So it does that as well. So this is about thinking very carefully about changes that are happening changes about people's patterns of life and changes in the weather. The risk of weather events now interrupting an election is very high and we need to be able to provide for it by giving the Chief Electoral Officer the power to make relevant decisions. So all that is there. It goes to the select committee and it will be scrutinised very carefully I know. These changes are very important for the integrity of the 2020 general election and the elections beyond. I commend this bill to the House."