Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): The amendment in my name providing for a definition of this distortion of the proportionality of Parliament really cuts to the heart of whether this bill truly is as the Government says all about protecting the proportionality of Parliament or whether that's just a crock and a cover for Winston Peters wanting the power to fire his MPs. It's a real test. It's a real test as to all of those speeches that you've heard from the justice Minister Andrew Little that this legislation is about protecting the proportionality of Parliament—is what it's all about.I'll tell you what it says. It says that of course the distortions that occur in the pure proportionality of Parliament from MPs switching parties has been over the history of MMP this century a fraction of that of MPs exiting under the six-month rule MPs exiting and causing a by-election or for that matter for the threshold rule or for that matter for the top-up provision that's provided for in the legislation.So what we're saying is that we need to be clear that if we are going to be sacking members of Parliament on the basis that they are distorting the proportionality of Parliament then it needs to be to a significant degree. It needs to be more than those other things. How can the Minister of Justice and Government members who are saying that we've got to make these extraordinary changes that breach the Bill of Rights that affect the freedom of MPs' speech—how can you do those things on the basis that Oh we're doing this to protect the proportionality of Parliament. Oh but let's ignore the six-month rule"—that means that for 15 percent of a term of Parliament the Parliament is distorted—"or for that matter the threshold rule."The National Party was very pleased at the last election to secure 44.5 percent of the vote but we actually have a distorted proportion. We've actually got 45.8 percent of the seats in the Parliament—that's a distortion. If the members opposite want to be consistent and say "Actually we believe absolutely in proportionality." then actually National should not have 45.8 percent of the seats in the House. The justice Minister in the chair has a chuckle. Well that's a difference of about 1.3 percent. When a member of Parliament changes party like Jim Anderton or Brendan Horan that's only an effect of 0.8 percent and what's more it happens every single Parliament. It's not just a one-off; it's every one of the last six Parliaments. Here are the numbers—and I'm an engineer and I do maths. Here are the numbers: this century the degree to which there has been a distortion from the proportionality of Parliament has been eight times greater with the threshold rule five times greater with the by-election rule and four times greater with the six-month rule than what it has been for the issue of MPs changing party. Isn't that interesting? It's a lot more significant from those three factorsSo I say to the Minister in the chair and I say to members opposite: if this bill is really about protecting the proportionality of Parliament as determined by the election why have you got this huge blind spot on those other provisions that do distort proportionality? You know what the honest answer is? This has got nothing to do with proportionality. This has got everything to do with the all-powerful Winston Peters wanting powers to be able to fire MPs of which he has a long history of falling out with since he established the New Zealand First Party and the Labour Party members are prepared to sell their souls simply to be able to grab the power at the last election.So I do invite members to support this amendment that provides some definition around the distortion of the representation of Parliament. What my amendment does is it says that in defining that it has to be greater than those other factors. It has to be significant. It has to be more than just some little tiny percent that the Government has acknowledged is off and distorted for those other provisions. Without that then we can only conclude that it's nothing to do with the proportionality of Parliament."