Tremain Chris: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tremain Chris: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8760. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a second time 
. This bill amends the rules for local authority elections. The bill’s amendments are designed to instil high levels of public confidence in the integrity of elections. In particular the bill recognises the strong need for increased transparency and accountability around candidates’ campaign donations. It brings the level of transparency and accountability applied to local electoral candidates closer to that applied to parliamentary candidates such as us. It also recognises a need to streamline pre-election processes. The public rightfully expects high levels of transparency and confidence in the conduct of all public elections. For this reason the Government is keen to progress this bill in time for the next local authority elections. These will be held on 12 October this year. 
Local authority elections cover the elections of representatives to regional councils district councils city councils unitary authorities community boards local boards district health boards licensing trusts and community trusts. The scale and diversity of local authority elections is indeed impressive. At the last elections in 2010 over 2.9 million postal voting packs were delivered to electors and electors voted for more than 1800 representatives on more than 250 local authorities. 
The bill’s changes to the Local Electoral Act and regulations are threefold. Firstly the bill tightens and increases transparency in the rules applying to candidates for receiving recording and reporting their campaign donations. It brings these rules closer in line with the rules for parliamentary elections as I mentioned earlier. Secondly the bill streamlines a range of pre-election processes. These changes are about bringing greater efficiency and effectiveness to the electoral process. Thirdly the bill improves the quality of publicly available information about candidates to help electors cast an informed vote and to increase candidate accountability. 
I will now briefly highlight some of the changes that are proposed in this bill. The current definition of “anonymous donation” in the Local Electoral Act is unclear. The bill addresses this issue by requiring greater accountability from candidates. A donation cannot be treated as anonymous if a candidate knows the identity of the donor or the candidate could in the circumstances reasonably be expected to know the identity of the donor. If a person handling a candidate’s donations knows the identity of any donor the details must be passed on to the candidate. The bill also limits the value of anonymous donations from a single donor. There is currently no limit to the amount of an anonymous donation in the Local Electoral Act. The bill stipulates therefore that if a candidate receives an anonymous donation greater than $1500 they will be able to keep the $1500 but will have to forfeit the excess. 
In addition the bill streamlines a number of important pre-election processes. Many of these changes reflect improvements recommended by councils electoral officers and others involved in the running of local authority elections. The changes are based on the practical experience of these people who submitted to the select committee. Specifically the bill gives unitary authorities city councils and district councils greater flexibility to set ward boundaries in a way that better encompasses local communities and communities with common interests. It also streamlines candidate nomination processes and provides electoral officers an extra week to produce high-quality voting documents. 
The bill makes other changes. It requires candidates to inform electors whether or not they live in the local government area—for example in the ward or constituency to which they seek election. It will also require candidates to inform electors of all positions that they are contesting. With the Justice and Electoral Committee’s amendments the bill also provides the public with clear rights of access to candidates’ returns of electoral expenses and donations. Electoral officers will be required to publish all returns and to make copies available to the public when requested to do so. 
These changes will make real and noticeable improvements to local authority elections. The changes are broadly welcomed by the local government sector and others involved in the running of local authority elections. 
I acknowledge the contributions of the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers and Local Government New Zealand to this bill. Can I thank them for their submissions on this process. I note that most submissions were also positive about the bill’s changes. I also wish to thank the Justice and Electoral Committee chaired by Scott Simpson for its thorough examination of the bill. Thank you to members involved. The committee operated under tight time constraints and I appreciate its support of the need to implement the bill’s changes quickly. 
The committee through its amendments has clearly sought to ensure firstly that the new rules are robust and enforceable; secondly that local electoral rules are aligned as closely as possible with those for parliamentary elections; and thirdly that the law strikes an appropriate balance between transparent processes and compliance obligations. In particular the committee’s amendment to replicate the Electoral Act’s approach of excluding goods and services with a value of $300 or less from the definition of “electoral donation” appropriately balances transparency and compliance obligations. The change will mean that candidates will not need to keep records of lower-value goods and services such as donations of cakes biscuits and stationery. This provides consistent rules for both local and parliamentary elections and will reduce administrative obligations. The new rules will also be simpler to enforce which is good. 
To summarise the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) will strengthen the integrity of the Local Electoral Act and local electoral regulations. It will enhance the transparency and efficiency of local authority elections beginning with this year’s 2013 elections. It will enhance the representation of electors and as a result of these changes it will increase the public’s confidence in the local electoral system as being efficient democratic and transparent. For these reasons I commend this bill to the House.