SpeechELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I present a legislative statement on the Electoral Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: I move That the Electoral Amendment Bill be now read a second time.Mr Speaker—Madam Speaker; aroha mai—this bill makes a number of changes to the Electoral Act 1993.These changes will increase public trust in the transparency of the rules around political donations and loans and extend the eligibility of overseas voters to enrol to vote in the 2023 general election.As I stated when I introduced this bill it is clear New Zealanders want greater transparency about how our political parties and candidates are funded. Seventy percent of respondents to a recent Victoria University of Wellington survey indicated that they did not trust the current political funding framework. In simple terms voters want to know and have a right to know how we as politicians butter our bread.The changes in this bill will increase public disclosure about party funding by providing more information about the sources of political funding. This bill will increase transparency and therefore trust in our democracy. It is my hope that when Victoria University of Wellington next conducts its survey of public attitudes on our public funding framework the levels of public trust will have increased due in some small part to the provisions in this bill.These provisions include the crucial step of lowering the threshold for disclosing the identity of party donors from $15000 to $5000. The new $5000 threshold represents a careful balance between transparency privacy the compliance burden placed on parties the right to freedom of expression and sufficient donation revenue for parties.Other changes in this bill include disclosure of a donor's identity within 10 working days when their donations to a party exceed $20000 during election years and disclosure of the proportion of total party donations that are in kind—non-monetary donations. This bill also requires additional information to be disclosed for the very first time. Under the bill the number and total value of non-anonymous donations under $1500 will need to be disclosed meaning that for the first time New Zealanders will be able to see a complete picture of all donations received by political parties. In addition candidates will be required to disclose loans received from unregistered lenders for the first time.Coupled with these changes to political donations and loan settings the bill also requires all registered parties to disclose their annual financial statements. This important step towards greater transparency about the financial affairs of parties was supported by over 85 percent of respondents to the same Victoria University of Wellington survey from last year. This will allow the general public to view the full income expenditure and asset base of parties for the very first time.The bill also addresses risks identified in the High Court's judgment in the New Zealand First Foundation case. These risks pose a threat to the integrity of our electoral system and public trust in that system. This bill addresses those risks before we head into election year in 2023.The bill as reported back from select committee incorporates the Supplementary Order Paper I introduced to address those risks into the bill. The bill now clarifies that party donations include any donation made to a person or group of people if there are reasonable grounds to believe such a donation was intended for the benefit of a political party. The bill also creates an offence for anyone who receives a donation and fails without reasonable excuse to transmit it to the intended recipient being either a candidate or a party secretary within 10 working days as the Electoral Act currently requires.I'd like to acknowledge Ginny Andersen the chair of the Justice Committee and the members of that committee for both scrutinising the proposals in the Supplementary Order Paper and their sensible approach in agreeing to incorporate the Supplementary Order Paper into the bill as reported back.Additionally the bill extends the overseas voting eligibility periods for the 2023 general election from three years to six years for New Zealand citizens and 12 months to four years for permanent residents—the amendment in response to the COVID-19 travel restrictions that prevented New Zealand citizens and permanent residents living overseas returning to New Zealand with the required time frames to be eligible to enrol to vote. This extension of course only applies for the 2023 general election to address those anomalies. The independent review of electoral law can consider permanent arrangements for overseas voters and we look forward to their findings in due course towards the end of next year.Again I want to acknowledge the Justice Committee for its careful consideration of the bill and of course all of those members of the public who made submissions. The committee received 42 submissions. The majority of submitters were supportive of the bill's objective to support the delivery of and participation in elections to maintain public trust and confidence in our electoral system. Submitters in support of the bill observed that increased transparency will force politicians and donors to reflect on how the public would view their financial relationships and noted that it is likely to be more difficult to work around the rules designed to protect the system. I believe that this can only be considered a good thing.The committee recommended some changes to the bill to improve its operations. Specifically the committee has recommended that all provisions in the bill excluding those relating to overseas voters would commence on 1 January 2023. The committee has also recommended inserting a transitional provision into the bill to specify that returns for party donations for the 2022 calendar year should be completed according to the requirements in the Act as at 31 December 2022. These amendments clarify that all reporting requirements in the bill relating to political donations and loans only apply from the start of the 2023 calendar year and do not have retrospective effect.The committee also recommended amending clause 27 of the bill so the requirements for registered parties relating to annual financial statements apply only to annual financial statements for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2023. This amendment also ensures these requirements do not have any retrospective effect and means that parties will have time to prepare their annual financial statements for public consumption from 2024 onwards.I look forward to working with the members of other parties during the remaining parliamentary stages for this bill. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.