Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm really pleased to take a call on the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill specifically Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 73 in the name of Nick Smith around the definition of integrity because this bill calls into question my integrity. This Supplementary Order Paper is vital for me to be able to maintain my integrity because I went to the last election and I promised the people of the East Coast Bays something. I promised them that I would stand up for the things that they believed in. I promised them that I would have their best interests at heart. I promised them that I would put their concerns above all else. I put my integrity on the line. Nearly 23000 good people of East Coast Bays put their trust in me. They put their faith in me to represent their concerns to do what I promised I would do.I put my integrity on the line and this bill takes it away. Without this Supplementary Order Paper without this amendment my integrity is called into question.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Could the member actually confine herself to the discussion on the definition of integrity. Thank you.ERICA STANFORD: Absolutely Madam Chairperson. Thank you for your guidance. The Supplementary Order Paper specifically says integrity means—(a) working in such a way that decisions reflect the democratic will of the people;". Now without this my integrity is called into question because I promised those people of the East Coast Bays that I would stand up for the matters that were important to them like the Ōkura marine reserve like charter schools like getting rid of our police station—which I stood up for. I promised them that I would put those things before everything else. I promised them that I would put their concerns above all else. This Supplementary Order Paper affords me that: "working in such a way that decisions reflect the democratic will of the people".The democratic will of the people was to put their faith in me to put their concerns above all else—not to listen to my party leader when it comes to their concerns not to put the party above all else but to put them above all else. That is why this amendment is so important. We have to define this. This is a retrospective bill let's not forget. I went to the people. I promised them at the election that I would put their concerns above all else. I promised that I would do that. This bill undoes all that because it's retrospective but this particular amendment allows me to fulfil my promise to put their concerns above all else. That is what I went to the election to do. That is what I promised to do. I put my integrity on the line. This bill strips away that integrity—and without this amendment it's gone. The very understanding they had all 23000 of them when they elected me—because that was the promise that I made to them that I would put their concerns above all else—is removed by this bill which is why we need this SOP. The abhorrent retrospective nature of this bill stops me fulfilling that promise to stand up for them. It turns me into a party robot. It takes away my integrity—to blindly follow that party line regardless of what my electorate want. And it doesn't happen all the time. Let's remember that those things I might stand up for against my party wishes that are important to my electorate and important to my integrity—they don't come about often but when they do come about I want to be able to stand up for them.I just want to speak in my last minute directly to the people of the East Coast Bays because I think it's really important that they understand what we're doing here and why this amendment is so important. As I mentioned I took to them that promise that I would stand up for them and I will always stand by that. This SOP makes it clear that I will work in such a way that reflects the will of the people—the people of the East Coast Bays. The reason that this is so important is because this whole bill is happening for two reasons. One: we know Winston Peters is paranoid and for good reason because he can't hold together his party; and also the Greens because they're going against everything that they said that they would always do. When it comes to the definition of integrity maybe the Greens should reclaim different "c" words: core values core principles and core beliefs. When it comes to integrity those are the important "c" words that they seem to have forgotten.I just want to finish by saying to the people of East Coast Bays that I will always put their concerns and their worries above all else because that is what I promised to do before the election. That is what I continue to promise to do because that is what I stood up for. That is my integrity and this Supplementary Order Paper is so important to be able to keep that."