O'Connor Greg; Williams ArenaGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Well this has been a very interesting debate tonight. I've watched particularly the speakers on the other side stand up and you always know and as you'll know yourself Madam Speaker when someone's standing up they actually don't believe what they're saying. You can tell that they're actually—they've read the notes they know what they've been told to do by the party whips they hunt for little examples that might be the pièce de resistance that will get them across but actually they don't really believe it. I've sat through just about all of your maiden speeches and what you did in your maiden speeches—there have been magnificent maiden speeches this year. What they've done is outline—some of your soul is actually exposed during a maiden speech a real part of what you are. Most Kiwis are very fair-minded. Most Kiwis understand something that's not quite right.I'll tell you what I'll give a good example at the moment—Mr Mitchell's sitting over there—the police pay. One thing about police: police know what's fair as much as they know an amount. And what's happening at the moment is unfair. In fact the police are a good cross-section of society—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we go back to the member's bill thank you.GREG O'CONNOR: Coming back to this bill—because everybody gets a vote and they should only vote once.But what I'll say to those opposite is that deep down you know that this is a country that was built on egalitarianism. We escaped the sort of stuff the sort of arguments that you're putting up. We escaped that when we left that terrible class system of Europe the class system that meant you were what you were born. The whole system entrenched privilege. We don't want to entrench privilege. All that entrenched privilege that we escaped was all about ownership. It was all about those that owned the estates whether you were up in the Scottish Highlands whether you were on those estates in Devon that were taken away from people—they are the things that actually we knew were wrong. I'll tell you what too—and Mr Anderson you should know this. There's a man called McKenzie—Jock McKenzie—who was part of this Government that actually made the changes that we talked about. Have you heard about the land reforms—the McKenzie land reforms? New Zealand was nearly like a South American nation the South American nation where it would have been owned by about 200 families. What did Jock McKenzie do? Jock McKenzie—we've got the statue out the front of Richard John Seddon but it could well have been the statue of Jock McKenzie because he was responsible for the land reform that meant the estates were broken up. Those estates basically if you lived in the Wairarapa if you lived down there in Central Otago it was virtually owned by three families. The reason why the estates were broken up was because those big landowners all they did was grow wool. They didn't need to grow meat because they were wealthy enough without it. So when we needed the good intensification of farming coming from Europe we had to break up those estates so that those coming from Europe could actually farm and farm intensively—and I note there are quite a few farmers on the other side and you yourself Madam Speaker. So understand the history of how we've got to where we are. That history is an incredibly important part.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Back to the bill.GREG O'CONNOR: There we go Mr Patterson on his beautiful bit of land down there in West Otago a great bit of land. That piece of land was all owned by one big family basically everything west of Balclutha today. But it was broken up so that people like you could do this. So bringing this back this allowing a vote around landowning it's just wrong. You—sorry Madam Speaker not you although I suspect being a fair-minded person you probably do. Rawiri Waititi: Point of order.GREG O'CONNOR: But the rest opposite I know that you know that this is actually—DEPUTY SPEAKER: We have a point of order.GREG O'CONNOR: Sit down please Mr Rawiri. So before we go to this vote—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! GREG O'CONNOR: Can I just ask you I know—DEPUTY SPEAKER: We have a point of order from Rawiri Waititi.GREG O'CONNOR: —what you've been told what to do by your whips. I'm hoping that perhaps—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr O'Connor! We have a point of order from Rawiri Waititi.Rawiri Waititi: Madam Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes?Rawiri Waititi: When that member is the Speaker of the House he always reminds us: stick to the bill. I've always wanted to say this to him. DEPUTY SPEAKER: So I—Rawiri Waititi: Mr Greg O'Connor: stick to the bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I actually have been listening and Mr O'Connor has been talking about landowners who have more rights on voting than other people which is exactly the intent of his bill. So carry on Mr O'Connor. I think you've got 29 seconds left.GREG O'CONNOR: Thank you Madam Speaker and I look forward to sitting in the Chair next time that member's speaking. But I do leave this: I know you've been told what to do by your whips. I also know that each one of you knows inherently that this is a right bill; this is the right thing to do. I'll invite just one of you to come across and vote for this bill. I thoroughly recommend this bill to the House.ARENA WILLIAMS (Assistant Whip—Labour): Point of order Madam Speaker. Thank you Madam Speaker. I seek leave to put the vote on this bill in the next members' day. The reason for that is that party whips cannot be sure that they are casting their votes after 10 o'clock with the right number of votes when there was no intention to vote.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah. See leave has been sought for that purpose. I want to ask if there's any objection. We do have discretion to run till 5 past should we need to. There is objection. So we'll take the vote and I'm going—Hon James Shaw: Point of order Madam Speaker. By my watch it actually is 5 past.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No it's 22.04 [Interruption] and I'm going to take the vote in silence. The question has to be determined. It was not 5 past and it's still not on my clock and I'll remind people seeing as we've had a noisy night that votes will be taken in silence.