Whaitiri MekaELECTORAL (REGISTRATION BY SPECIAL VOTE) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. Otirā e ngā members of Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I move That the Electoral (Registration by Special Vote) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice and Electoral Committee to consider the bill. Often we have members of Parliament who can go through their time in this House without having the privilege of having a member's bill drawn under their name. I am proud as the member for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti that this is not the first bill that I have had drawn but actually my second bill and I do hope that the support of the Government in terms of my first bill is also realised in the introduction of this bill. I am proud to nominate this bill the Electoral (Registration by Special Vote) Amendment Bill and the aim of this bill is to amend the Electoral Act 1993 to allow unregistered voters to register by completing a special vote. Voter participation in our general elections is too low and Labour is committed to lifting it. The bill amends the Electoral Act 1993 to allow unregistered voters to register by completing a special vote and so ensure that their votes are counted. In the last 30 years there has been a general decline in voter turnout over time with the lowest percentage of people voting occurring within the last two election cycles 2011 and 2014. Roughly a million people did not show up to vote in the 2014 election making it one of New Zealand's worst turnouts in the last century.The Ministry of Social Development's Social Report 2016 says that voter turnout rates as an indicator of the confidence the population has in political institutions the importance they attach to them and the extent to which they feel their participation can make a difference. It is vital for a healthy democracy that we lift voter participation and it is also vital that we do what we can to remove current impediments to voter participation where they serve no use other than to fulfil bureaucratic requirements.Democracy will be enhanced under this bill as unregistered voters will be able to register by completing a special vote. For various reasons someone may choose to complete a special vote—which involves submitting their details and signing a statutory declaration in front of a witness—unaware that they are not enrolled to vote. In this case the elector will receive a letter from the Electoral Commission advising them that their vote did not count and requesting that they now enrol by submitting the same details they provided when they cast their special vote. Not only has their vote been disallowed but an opportunity to engage the elector in the political process has been lost. The elector must also duplicate the paperwork necessary for their enrolment. The 2014 election saw an upsurge in the number of special votes cast the total number of special votes disallowed and the percentage disallowed due to non-enrolment. There were 331000 special votes cast in 2014. Of the special votes cast at the last election 27467 were disallowed because the voter was not enrolled at all. The Electoral Commission has projected that in 2017's general election 35000 people who cast special votes will be disqualified because they will not be enrolled at all. The commission projects a further 53000 voters in this year's election will have their party vote counted but their candidate vote disqualified because (a) they are not enrolled in the correct electorate or (b) they will vote in the wrong electorate because they have failed to understand which electorate they were enrolled in. An analysis of the Te Tai Tokerau judicial recount indicated that some voters whose votes had been disallowed because they were not enrolled had completed special vote declarations at previous elections. The commission surmises that these voters thought that completing a special vote declaration would mean they would be enrolled. With both enrolment and voting now being delivered by a single agency and because both forms require similar details from the elector the commission suggests legislative change that enables a special vote to be treated as an application to enrol or update details. This will also serve to streamline the enrolment and voting process during the advance voting period. This bill will enhance democracy in New Zealand by ensuring those whose voices would otherwise not be heard are engaged in the political process and have their votes counted. This amendment to the Electoral Act will enact recommendations made by the Electoral Commission and enable tens of thousands more Kiwis to participate in our democratic process. Increased voter participation is vitally important if voters are to elect a Parliament that is truly representative of our communities. This bill will also create efficiencies and will eliminate wasteful red tape in our electoral system by treating a special vote as an application to enrol or update details.I want to thank the Labour Party's submission to the inquiry of the electoral subcommittee into 2014 and I particularly want to acknowledge our deputy leader and colleague Jacinda Ardern who took our views to that subcommittee and is very much part and parcel of this bill being presented tonight. I do look forward to the Government's support for this bill. For me it is completely apolitical it is fully non-controversial and it is something that all Kiwis will benefit from. I also look forward to the support of the Māori Party for this bill. In the 2014 election more than 3 percent of all votes cast in Māori electorates were disallowed as they were invalid special votes. In the last two elections more than 8600 Māori voters have had their votes disallowed as they were invalid special votes. Māori know that we desperately need to increase our participation in the electoral system yet the current barriers in place are already suppressing a significant number of Māori votes. For democracy for representation in this House I commend this bill to the House.