Dean JacquiELECTORAL (MĀORI ELECTORAL OPTION) LEGISLATION BILLSecond ReadingHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs) on behalf of the Minister of Justice: I present a legislative statement on the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: I move That the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Bill be now read a second time. This bill responds to concerns raised in recent years by the Electoral Commission and Māori about constraints on the right of Māori voters to choose between the general roll and the Māori roll. This bill is an omnibus bill. It makes amendments to the Electoral Act 1993 and the Local Electoral Act 2001 to reflect the changes made to the Electoral Act and subsequently changes to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Māori Constituency Empowering) Act 2001 which are necessary to retain consistency with the Local Electoral Act. The bill supports Māori electoral participation by replacing the current four-month period every four to six years where Māori voters can choose to move between the general and Māori electoral rolls with a continuous option. The continuous option as currently drafted will allow Māori voters to change rolls at any time except when residing in an electorate where there is a parliamentary by-election and the by-election does not coincide with the local body election. The bill makes a consequential change to how the Māori electoral population and by extension the number of Māori seats is calculated. The Māori electoral population will be calculated based on numbers as at census day or where the census and general election are in the same year 1 April in the following year. This is defined as counting day" in the bill. This change requires some minor amendments to reserve provisions of the Electoral Act; in particular section 35 relating to boundary reviews. The continuous option cannot be introduced without such a change. While the intention of these provisions is retained the fact that section 35 is a reserved provision means that it can only be amended with the support of 75 percent of the House. I first want to thank the Justice Committee for its consideration of the bill and those members of the public who made submissions. The committee received 121 submissions. Submitters overwhelmingly responded that the current Māori electoral option creates barriers to Māori participation in the electoral process. This is because Māori are unable to change the electoral roll they are on to reflect their electoral preferences outside of a very narrow and seemingly arbitrary four-month period every five or six years. The committee heard repeatedly that the current arrangements are unjustified unfair and often difficult to understand. Many submitters also thought the bill supports the Crown to better meet its obligations to Māori under Te Tiriti including at local government level where I was encouraged that there was strong support for the bill from local government organisations. The committee has recommended several minor and technical changes to the bill that help clarify its intended effect. Firstly the committee has recommended that clause 15 of the bill is deleted. This clause duplicates existing provisions that allow voters who qualify as electors but are not entered on the roll to vote via special vote. A second recommendation relates to ensuring that the integrity of the rolls is maintained in the event that a by-election coincides with a triennial local election. The committee has recommended that new section 78A inserted by clause 6 of the bill is amended to ensure that it is consistent with the requirement that the Electoral Commission does not amend the roll at any time between the day after polling day and the day the writ is returned. The committee has also recommended amending the definition of "election period" in proposed new section 78A and inserting a definition for "local election period". Under the proposed amendments the election period would end on polling day for by-elections. For local triennial elections it would begin when a notice of the triennial election is published under the Local Electoral Act and would end on polling day. The committee considered that these amendments would help the Electoral Commission to implement the new section. The final proposal for amendment relates to the definition of "Māori electoral population". The committee has recommended clauses 4 and 14 are amended to clarify that the definition of "Māori electoral population" for both the Electoral Act and the Local Electoral Act refers to voters registered for either Māori or general electoral districts and persons named on the dormant roll.We know that approximately 6000 Māori ask to change rolls in a non-election year and over 22000 people tried to change rolls in 2020. Ngā Rangahautira the Māori Law Students' Association of Victoria University stated in their submission to the committee echoing the concerns of many other submitters that they have "heard from numerous tauira who turned 18 just after the last electoral option in 2018 and enrolled on the general roll ( … without realising the difference) they are unable to switch rolls until 2024 and therefore unable to vote on that roll until 2026." Let us not make Māori wait until the 2026 election to exercise their vote on their preferred roll.I wish to thank the committee again for their work. I look forward to our deliberations at the committee of the whole House. Wherever possible changes to voting systems should be taken forward with as much cross-party support as possible and in that spirit I look forward to continuing to work with the members of the Opposition 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."