Power Simon: Electoral Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Power Simon: Electoral Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1346] 
Hon SIMON POWER (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Electoral Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. The House has made excellent progress on this matter this evening—such excellent progress that my third reading speech is still in my office. I conclude these matters by making one or two key points in response to two parties. Firstly I thank all parties in the House for the constructive approach they have taken to this issue not only to the repeal of the Electoral Finance Act which this time 12 months’ ago was inciting a fair bit of activity in this debating chamber when members on that side of the House were on this side and vice versa but also because I think we have got to the stage where a cross-party approach to try to put into place an enduring legislative framework to deal with future elections is the appropriate vehicle. 
I say to Green Party representatives in the House that although they have exercised their right not to vote for this legislation I acknowledge that according to conversation with their co-leader Dr Russel Norman the Greens will be participating in the process that will move it forward from here—that is the cross-party and public discussions about the new enduring legislative framework—and I thank them for taking that step. Their contribution will be welcomed as will all parties’ contributions in that discussion. 
It is significant that new legislation will be required for the 2011 election but in the interim hybrid legislation had to be enacted in the unlikely hypothetical or theoretical event that a by-election occurs in the near future. 
Charles Chauvel 
: Or a general election. 
Hon SIMON POWER 
: Good luck with that I say to Charles! The fact was that we could not have a hiatus where no electoral law was in place should that event or similar events occur. Participants in the House through their political parties and the public will now move to a process designed to involve all of those participants in reaching this far more enduring electoral law. The first step in that process is likely to be an issues document that will give the public and political parties an opportunity to have a say on a raft of issues. Many of them have been raised by members opposite today; some have been raised by the Green Party and the ACT Party representatives who are in the House this evening. When we have that first meeting I encourage all members to come armed with their parties’ views or suggestions for that issues paper. Subsequent to that there is likely to be a further opportunity for wider discussion based on a more honed and narrow set of issues well prior to a bill being drafted and put into the House for the usual 6-monthly period for the select committee process to consider that bill. 
In other words this had to be done at this point in the electoral cycle and as early as this in the life of this Government so that participants from other parties and the public could have at least two and hopefully three opportunities to have input and discussion around what this framework will look like. Although I disagree—obviously because I scrapped it—with the Greens’ view of the electoral review panel and the citizens’ forum it is my hope that the many opportunities for public and party input into this process will have a similar broad and encompassing approach to hearing views not only from the participants in this process but also from participants in elections throughout New Zealand should they choose to take that opportunity. 
I conclude there and I simply finish by saying that I hope this is the first step—although we will not agree on everything—of a process that will see these issues thoroughly debated and the final legislative process put in place in a way that will hopefully see this House not have to have this conversation for some time after the legislation is settled. I commend this bill to the House