Mallard Trevor: Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15187] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 That was a fairly good second reading speech but I was quite surprised that the member Cam Calder was the one speaking rather than the member in charge of the Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill. I think the normal practice at the Committee stage of a bill as I think the member should be aware is that when there is a substantive Supplementary Order Paper the member in charge of the bill—normally a Minister but in this case Mr Quinn—gets up and explains the substance of that Supplementary Order Paper. In this case I think he should have taken responsibility for the situation that led to the Supplementary Order Paper which effectively reverses the guts of the bill. 
I know that all of us have our first time in the chair. Like the member I was lucky enough to be involved in a bill well before my ministerial time. 
Grant Robertson 
: A very good bill. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well I do not know if it was very good actually; it was legislation on Waikato electricity and gas. As I am indicating to the member it would have been better and it would have been polite to the Committee if he had stood up. I think it is fair to say that this will be the highlight of his 3-year parliamentary career when people go back and look at the changes that he has made. In the future when he is looking out from his home in Roseneath over to the prison on Mount Crawford he will be able to say that for a period of time as a result of his work there were people there who could not go on the electoral roll. That will be the peak of his parliamentary career: he will be able to look out from his house in Roseneath over to Mount Crawford and to say that. I do not think he can actually see the prison in the Hutt Valley from his place; I think he would have to look around the corner a bit from Roseneath. I know where Rimutaka Prison is and I know where the Hutt Valley is unlike Mr Quinn who is a fairly irregular visitor out there. 
In fact he did not make it to either of the school prize-givings last night. He is the champion of the valley! 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Was he up for a prize? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The dunce’s prize because I do not think I have seen in a bill the time that I have been in Parliament that shows such gross incompetence in the management of a simple piece of legislation. This is not complicated legislation; it is relatively simple. I can understand the problems that Maurice Williamson had with his shipping legislation in the past because it was substantive. I do not really understand Kate Wilkinson’s problems a couple of weeks ago as that was simple too. I would have thought it was impossible to have an effect that is the reverse of the intention of the member in charge of the bill. I would have thought that a member in charge of legislation who was even half competent would read it. If he could not understand it then he could get someone to read it too him. If he could not understand it then he could get someone with some legal knowledge such as Simon Bridges— 
Grant Robertson 
: No someone with legal knowledge! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: To be fair the junior lawyer from Tauranga has some legal knowledge— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: He never won a case. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Oh no he could have explained the bill to Paul Quinn. Then we would not have had Paul Quinn with Supplementary Order Paper 174. That Supplementary Order Paper can be well summarised as him saying he is sorry. Paul Quinn in Committee moved an amendment to new clause 6: “To add the following clause (after line 24 on page 2):” but really it should say: “I’m sorry”. What the member has done is almost unforgivable. He sat on a select committee on a bill he looked at it carefully he went line by line through the Supplementary Order Paper and he looked at all the changes that were done in the select committee— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: And then he woke up. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well no he did not wake up; that is the whole point. The legislation came to the House wrong because he was asleep. All I want to do is to congratulate my colleagues on the select committee who let him do it.