Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'd like to begin by congratulating the Minister of Justice on this bill which demonstrates his commitment to democracy and to strengthening the access of all New Zealanders to their democracy. This bill is an investment in the accessibility of all voters to our system of Government. It removes arbitrary bars to voting that we've seen have frightening effect on the health of any democracy. We've seen this overseas. We've seen that these types of arbitrary bars can be utilised in other systems to effectively disenfranchise entire segments of society. We've seen it in particular in the United States where the requirements to have certain types of ID to enrol to vote and to travel distances to polling or voting stations have effectively disenfranchised those who can't afford that type of access. So this bill importantly makes it easier to enrol to vote by allowing for that to happen on the day of election.Now the types of people who might find it difficult to enrol before that day might be people who don't have a fixed abode—people who have to move around because rental properties are not yet all that secure here. The types of people that are busy that have more than one job that have families—these are the kinds of people that the National Party says are more likely to vote for Labour and the Greens or for the Government indeed and less likely to vote for them.Next the bill allows for voting in more types of places—like malls like supermarkets. It makes it easier for people to go in and vote while they're doing other things that they need to do in their busy lives. What kind of people would find that more useful? Busy families again people with multiple jobs and people who don't work regular hours.It's extraordinary to have the Opposition say that these are the types of people who would prevent them from getting into Government if they were able to more easily cast their vote. It's extraordinary to hear politicians admit that their success was predicated on the lack of access to voting by ordinary people in this country.At the last election 19000 people—equivalent to the population of Queenstown—tried to vote and they were prevented by this totally obscure arbitrary rule. That was just the people who tried to vote. All the people who stayed home because they'd run out of time—that is the health of our democracy at stake. It may seem like it's just a formality and people should just get themselves in order and do it but the idea is that it should be possible for everyone to vote on election day. It should be possible for everyone to pop into a voting station and not have to travel specifically to a particular place in the middle of their busy lives. Voting is for everyone and this bill tries to make it more possible for more New Zealanders to engage in our democracy.Now if we're going to look at constitutional conventions in terms of the way that electoral law is made as the Opposition has constantly referred to we do want to take party politics out of substantive electoral reform. That's why we have an Electoral Commission. That's why the Electoral Commission in 2012 conducted a thorough consultation two-step consultation with thousands of New Zealanders engaged. It made recommendations to reform our MMP system and yet that side of the House buried those recommendations. They had an opportunity to do it the way they say it's meant to be done and those were substantive changes. Why were they buried? Because the National Party needed to do a dirty deal with ACT to prop up its bare majority Government and part of those recommendations were that the electorate entry into Parliament should be abolished because it is unfair and it is undemocratic. So when our independent system for electoral reform was engaged the National Party didn't like the result and they buried it. Now that we're making it easier for people to vote they're upset. So I do agree that electoral reform should be done in a way that is fair and that isn't led by party politics but that can never be said of reform that actually engages more people in our democracy.I would like to see however—and perhaps this is the National Party saying that they would now support it—the implementation of the MMP review recommendations and I think that I do want to talk about this bill as a first step to electoral reform in New Zealand because making our democracy more accessible has to go beyond just these technical changes as important as they are. So I would like to see the Government pick up my member's bill implementing the MMP review recommendations. I would like us in a further step to look at the way that political donations and the transparency around those work in our democracy. I would like more New Zealanders to have access to their democracy in a way that's not impeded by their lack of ability to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to political parties and I'd like us all to know who is in fact donating to our political parties. We do want to see an end to political interference from abroad but also political interference by big money. We do want to see everyone be able to vote as the Supreme Court has told us we must do by abolishing the ban on prisoner voting and we do want to see a change so that those who qualify for the Māori roll are able to change rolls at any time.So this is a first step. It is about accessibility to our system. It's about an open government and open democracy for all on equal terms and for that I do commend the bill to the House.