O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Obviously second reading of this Electoral (Māori by-election Electoral Option) Legislation Bill and look pleased as we've now heard—which of course is no surprise to me but perhaps to the House—that National is supporting this and I think it's important to tease out a little bit of the why at this stage and then extrapolate some wider lessons.The fundamental reason that National's now comfortable with supporting this bill is that there's a time out or a window if you will of three months before general elections and by-elections to move between rolls. And why I want to stress that from the outset is National from day one has been happy with the idea the concept—particularly with Māori—to be able to move between rolls. We can see—even I can see—that the current system is too tight. Where we ran into issues very early on and why initial support was not forthcoming was not the concept of changing rolls but we felt the law at that stage—and arguably too at this stage still—seemed to be first and foremost arbitrary that one could change rolls up to three months for a by-election. But this current draft legislation bill would have allowed and actually still allows for people to change between the general and the Māori roll or the Māori to the general roll right up to election day. We thought that was very inconsistent.Why I stress that this is still the current legislation is that we are awaiting I believe the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) to be tabled from the Minister and I have absolute faith 99.999-recurring faith that that SOP will be forthcoming. But I think it's important to put the proviso out there in words that that SOP—written to our satisfaction—is what's going to require our support. Because as has also been rightly noted this is an electoral amendment bill; it requires 75 percent support of the House and in this case it requires the support of His Majesty's loyal Opposition. As I say we are happy to give that support contingent on an SOP touching on that issue of three months.So just stepping back for a moment we completely understand as I say the reason why we should be able to have some movement—some movement—across the rolls. The current law in New Zealand as it stands is that every five years we have a census. On that basis we work out electorate size including with our Māori seats and then there is a four-month window from that moment for people to decide whether they wish to be on the Māori roll or not. As one example of that there are some in my family who have chosen—sorry on my wife's side not myself. I'm stuck on the general roll. We Irish are stuck when it comes to New Zealand's roll system. But for my wife's family and my step-kids they can make their choice and some are on the general roll and some are on the Māori roll which makes life a little bit interesting at election time because some of my step-kids vote for me and some don't. But I want to make it very clear for people on Hansard and others it's because—Todd Muller: How do you know they vote for you?SIMON O'CONNOR: Well look there's a whole range of issues that are now being—I might have to almost make a personal statement. Todd Muller: I don't know if they do vote for you.SIMON O'CONNOR: We have dissension developing here around whether my family's telling me the truth or not. But I have absolute confidence. But look there was only a four-month window for people to make their mind up and actually humans being what we are we make decisions at different times and at different stages of life. So if someone is wanting to move between the rolls we are very happy or content or accepting" is maybe the better word. We are accepting of that but it really must come with that proviso that one cannot move between rolls three months before a by-election and three months before a general election. And again that was probably the primary sticking point for this side of the House; that for some reason that I don't completely understand it seems logically inconsistent that according to this legislation you were not allowed to move rolls three months before a by-election but you could still with a general election. That just doesn't make sense because as has been noted by at least one previous speaker and I'm sure it will be echoed by others we don't want to see any gaming of the political system.Put simply we do not want to see people jumping between the general roll and the Māori roll or the Māori roll to the general roll to try and develop some sort of electoral advantage. And look that would have to be relatively orchestrated but we do know when it comes to elections there's always bellwether seats there's always very tight races where the influx of 100 200 1000 people whatever number you wish to use could actually sway the vote. We don't want to see that because first and foremost that would skew I would argue the election result. But secondly it would also undermine some of our most basics around democracy and certainly people's faith in it. If New Zealanders were to see large numbers of people moving rolls simply to maximise a party's political advantage I think that's damaging to all of us. The bill at the moment is still not amended or rather the select committee has made some changes and actually can I acknowledge Ginny Andersen the chair and all the members who have worked through this. It's been an important piece of work. So we wait for that SOP that's going to be quite critical. One thing I would like to see and I don't think it's within the bill but even without the bill having it in there we will need to monitor how this operates. I think it will be very interesting to see over the coming three six nine years how many people choose to move rolls and also how frequently. I think that will be something important that the Electoral Commission—but also this Parliament—looks at to make sure that we have confidence that the moving about is being done because of someone's identification if you will rather than any other motives. The other part that we do need to signal is that this is sitting within a wider array of electoral changes that this Government is doing. We on this side of the House have serious reservations around the push towards State funding. We have concerns about limiting democratic participatory activity be that from donation through to actually being able to speak one's mind. We just need to be clear to the Government of the day that electoral law needs to be done in such a way that has the Opposition and the Government in lock step together not simply for the sake of this Parliament but that the New Zealand public can have faith in what's happening. So as I say pleased to support this at second reading on the proviso that an SOP lands on that table making it abundantly clear that the three-month closed window for changing the roll applies to by-elections and to general elections."