Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you very much Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this second debate on inserting new clause 7 into the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill. I would like to speak in particular in favour of Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 77 in the name of Chris Bishop which includes that This Act must be reviewed by the Electoral Commission within six months of each general election following this Act entering into force."Now I would like to start by just talking a little bit about the comments that the Minister Andrew Little has raised where he has said that the Supplementary Order Papers that we're trying to advance on this side of the House are simply "Tory privilege". Well I'm sorry but it's not Tory privilege to try to ensure that this legislation isn't retrospective and isn't reviewed and doesn't have the accountability and the oversight. I would like to also suggest that there are probably a lot of closet Tories on the other side of Parliament today who—and look their heads pop up. Their heads pop up—all the closet Tories. They've just popped up. They also are principled people who believe that Parliament shouldn't be putting forward retrospective legislation which doesn't have accountability and which isn't reviewed. I know that those members from the other side are doing this because they are being forced to because of a coalition agreement that is being forced on them by the Rt Hon Winston Peters. [Interruption] So let me get to the—Jamie Strange: Tell us about your union Matt. Tell us about the police union.SIMEON BROWN: —crux of this Supplementary Order Paper. There's another closet Tory: Jamie Strange. He pipes up. He won't take a call because he knows his job's on the line but he's a closet Tory over on the other side of the House because he doesn't believe in retrospectivity but he has to vote for legislation which is retrospective.So this Supplementary Order Paper ensures that the Electoral Commission within six months of each general election must review the Act. I'd like to point the Minister in the chair to one of the purposes of the Electoral Commission which is to maintain confidence in the electoral system that we have in New Zealand. I think that's an important point. They have a legislated role to maintain confidence in the electoral system of New Zealand and one of the things that we have been saying on this side of the House is that this bill will undermine the electoral system of New Zealand. It will lead to a scenario where party leaders will have all the power in the electoral system. And yes I acknowledge the Minister disagrees with that argument. He disagrees with what we've been saying. He thinks this will allow for utopia to reign in New Zealand but if he is of such a staunch view then surely some entity outside of this House should have the legislated obligation to actually review this legislation. That is in my view the appropriate role of the Electoral Commission which as I have said has this legislated role of reviewing and maintaining confidence in the electoral system.I would argue that giving the Electoral Commission this additional responsibility of reviewing this new Act if it was to come into force would ensure that New Zealanders can have some form of confidence in this piece of legislation and how it's operating because at least somebody at least some entity would be looking at how it's operating and would be able to have some form of oversight in terms of how this is happening. We understand how this will actually take place. In the cigar-smoke - filled rooms of New Zealand First and the vape-filled rooms of the Green Party they will be making all sorts of decisions behind closed doors and they will be making decisions for which there will be no accountability. There will be no legislated review over those decisions. What we believe and what New Zealanders want is accountability to ensure that it's legislated because the people who put us here are the people in our electorates. I was elected by the people in Pakuranga. I was put here to represent them and they have a right to have the oversight through the Electoral Commission over how this legislation may work and how it may be executed by party leaders. So we must as a Parliament stand up for accountability and openness. I ask that you all support this SOP."