Hughes Gareth: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: New Zealand Flag Referendums Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 23 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:6982. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I do not want to sound naive by coming to this debating chamber and bemoaning all the politics that we are hearing in the parliamentary debating chamber but we sure are hearing an awful lot of politics. As my colleague Dr Kennedy Graham said maybe some of it is a bit more heat than light. But politics is the problem; this is why we find ourselves in this Chamber today. I am not trying to sound sanctimonious as the Hon Trevor Mallard alleged that I was. I am just trying to reflect the fact that it is politics that sees us here today because of the political point-scoring the games and the eventual political deadlock that Parliament had found itself in.I also want to say on the flip side that despite this debate—and it is pretty robust; I think that it would win some points in some of the debating clubs around the country—the fact is that we are working together. There are six political parties coming together tonight to listen to the people to include their choice and I think that that is fantastic because on the one hand we can see all of the political rhetoric and hear all of the debate and on the other hand we can actually see some of the practical tangible benefits of working together. I believe that this is what the public decided in one of those seminal referenda in our history—that is when we decided to move to MMP. I would like to acknowledge the debate acknowledge the opinions and most of all acknowledge political parties working together.Why we sought leave to table and introduce this bill today was because we wanted to break that political deadlock. We are not trying to play games. We are not trying to score points. We are not trying to get one over anyone. We do not care whose name is on the bill or what happens. What we care about is offering a constructive pragmatic practical solution that can get the votes in this House. As we saw at the first reading vote an overwhelming majority supported listening to the people and supported a fifth flag being included in the referenda. In this contribution I would like to touch on some of the criticism and respond to some of the debate I would like to reiterate some of the Green Party’s position points and also issue some thanks.Let us start off with some of the debate that we have heard tonight. I would like to acknowledge Trevor Mallard in particular for some of the things he said. He raised a question that I think needs to be addressed. Mr Mallard said that because Red Peak was not explicitly mentioned in the clauses of the legislation somehow we were going to get some odd option—maybe “Laser Kiwi” which I think was maybe the second-most popular choice amongst New Zealanders. It staggers me to think that Mr Mallard has been in Parliament I believe for almost as long as I am old and no doubt he has seen his own bills pass through Parliament and become Acts and he has worked in ministries.This legislation is quite a precedent in New Zealand for this Parliament. As part of our relationship with the Governor-General—as part of our Crown relationship; the executive to the Governor-General—Parliament cannot instruct the Governor-General to do anything. That is our constitutional framework and actually despite being a card-carrying republican it would be obscene I believe for this Parliament under our current conventions to be ordering the Governor-General what to do. But that is why the protections are in the explanatory note of the bill. Obviously the debate is in the Hansard for this House. So before this turns into some myth—if this is some sort of myth or otherwise that Labour is trying to share—the fact is that this bill is about Red Peak and this bill implements only that.From New Zealand First members we have heard allegations of there being Nazi symbolism in Red Peak. I would like to address this because what they are referring to are some of the pillboxes that were used in Germany which used alternating coloured lines. I think this is outrageous I think it is ridiculous I think it is scurrilous and I think it is despicable that they should be drawing this sort of link particularly when we know the horrors that occurred under that regime.I would like to address the issue of why we are here in urgency. I talked about politics being the reason that we are here. Politics was the problem and I am sure that more political games are definitely not the answer. We are here under urgency and I acknowledge that that is not ideal. We are here under urgency because the clock is ticking—because we are less than 6 weeks away from the referendum. No doubt the Electoral Commission is about to be printing millions of pieces of paper so that Kiwis can have their democratic say. There was literally an urgent reason for Parliament to move in haste.For more than a week the country has watched the two parties as they have talked and as they have traded letters allegations and spin through the media. For more than a week we have sat here and waited. There was real urgency; the clock was ticking. It was time for someone to act. Of course ideally this would not have happened under urgency. I believe that in an ideal world Cabinet through an Order in Council would have simply listened to the public and included the fifth option which was Red Peak. The reason we have put the bill to Parliament today is that time was running out and also to test the Prime Minister’s proposition. The Prime Minister made a challenge to parties in New Zealand. He said that if there could be political support amongst the parties—excluding New Zealand First whose position was clearly known—the National Government would support it. That proposition has been tested and it has been found true and I would like to welcome the support of all the political parties for the Government adopting my bill.Fourthly and lastly on the issue of the yes/no vote I believe that there are legitimate and logical arguments on both sides. I believe that both sides can make a case. I understand it. I am sympathetic to the Labour members’ position. I believe that a lot of New Zealand is behind them but I would like to point out that our position in choosing this bill is not to relitigate the entire process. Our position is not trying to score any points over anyone. Our position is trying simply to listen to the will of the people to make sure that we get that fifth option before the clock counts down and it is too late.I would like to reiterate some of our position and the reason that we are doing this is that there was a phenomenal groundswell of support. This was not the case for any other bill in this process. In the space of only a week we saw 50000 people support this bill. We saw I believe only around 7000 people engage with the official consultation process. We saw a massive overwhelming groundswell of support—in only a single week I would remind the House. That is why we are trying to make sure those people’s voices are heard.Secondly I do not believe that this is the most important thing that should be taking up Parliament’s time. Maybe Denis O’Rourke and I agree on that. When it comes to $26 million of taxpayers’ money I would rather that money be spent on feeding kids school lunches. If we are talking about $26 million I would rather that money were spent on installing solar panels in every school in this country so that the kids can save the money and spend it on musical instruments and sports equipment rather than on rising power bills. There are a host of things that we could do with this money and I believe that it is a legitimate and right question to ask whether this is the right time to be changing the flag. Are we actually having that genuine public conversation about what the flag represents who we are as a people and where we are going as a nation in 2015? Should we also be looking at some of the constitutional arrangements? Despite being a card-carrying republican I believe that the most important constitutional question we should be asking ourselves is: how do we enshrine Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our constitutional framework?So this issue is not the most important thing. It was an incredibly flawed process but the fact is that it is happening. We voted against the Government’s bill but it passed. It became an Act. The referendum is going to happen in less than 6 weeks’ time and if it were to continue down the track with the political deadlock and parties trading letters and sitting in their respective offices nothing would have changed. It was not going to be improved. Those tens of thousands of Kiwis who wanted a fifth option would not have been listened to. So this was simply about improving the legislation.I would like to thank a number of people. I would like to thank the big team actually behind the drafting of the legislation. I would like to acknowledge our spokesperson Dr Kennedy Graham who I know has been acknowledged in this debate as playing with a straight bat throughout the select committee process and the other parts of this process. I would like to thank the other parties for their support. I know that some of the kind words from the National members to the Greens have been genuine which we thank them for; some of them have been damning with faint praise which of course we reject. But it is good that we can work together on this as we have worked together on home insulation and the national cycleway—just like we worked with Labour on some pioneering climate policies in the last Labour Government.In summary I do not know whether this is going to be the flag that we are going to get. I do not even know whether the flag is going to change. It does not matter. Regardless of what your opinion is—silver fern Red Peak keep the flag or whatever—at least we have a choice. I genuinely believe that it is up to Kiwis and they will express their will in the two referenda. But most important I think—as a young member I really want to reflect on this—many of the supporters of Red Peak are younger Kiwis. If they had just been disregarded by this House if they had been ignored and if politics had got in the way of that choice I fear that we would have disillusioned a whole new cohort—tens of thousands of New Zealanders who literally wanted a choice. So I am glad that we can work together. I am glad that we can put politics aside for a wee bit. I look forward to the progress of this bill.